Burn this City to Ashes
by GlassAlice
Summary: When she moved to the big city, she never would've expected being suddenly dragged into a world of mayhem. The fire boy swore he would find her, no matter where she ran. Well, being an office lady never suited her anyway.
1. The Fated Day

**I never expected to do a story using Fairy Tail characters and such, but when I thought this up, not typing it would've been torture to MY SOUL. And thank you for even clicking on it because it sounded interesting haha. **

**So with that, continue on to chapter one of**

**'Burn this City to Ashes' **

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_**Chapter 1:**__** The False Flame**_

_**Modern-day**_

_**Brothers' and Co. Printing Company**_

_**Afternoon of August 12th**_

The clicking of keyboards, nails upon plastic, heels upon concrete, an assortment of voices, all unfamiliar, it annoyed the hell out of her. Though being in a cubicle is supposed to be like being in your own room, to her, it seemed more like being in a rundown apartment complex in which there were thin walls and loud neighbors. She clicked her nails angrily, only adding to the already incessant noises. Bobbing her foot up and down in her current legs crossed position was the only way to keep in her insanity.

"Miss Heart."

She turned after hearing her recently given nickname, to which she was not at all found of, ceasing her nail clicking entertainment. "It's Heartfilia." She stood up from her chair and massaged out the wrinkles in her knee-length pinstripe skirt that was standard office wear.

"Oh, but isn't calling you 'Miss Heart' so much cuter?" The woman who called out to her seemed persistent, as all of the people in the division were. It seemed as though if she didn't allow the woman to do so, she would take away the only entertainment that was being provided to everyone. She told herself it was just the way people were, if they had something comedic to take up time during their own boring breaks, than it was at least common courtesy for her to play along.

"I suppose." She adjusted her dress shirt, making sure everything was in order before she went out of her so called 'private room' of a cubicle, "Am I being called for the meeting now?"

The woman nodded, smiling ear to ear at the inside joke that she thought she was hiding so well, "You know where to go, he said you could go right in." The woman left her cubicle through the gaping hole where the said 'door' would be in a 'private room.' She leaned over to check her stockings, making sure she had no runs in them. After nodding in satisfaction, she slipped on her high black heels that she would otherwise not wear, choosing to walk in barefoot rather than subject herself to the annoying clanking that sickened her. As she was about to leave the cubicle, with said papers for meeting in hand, she turned back towards her chair, pondering if she should wear her jacket. After looking down at her chest, as if it would have gotten any smaller, she decided that wearing it was in her best interests.

She stepped out of her cubicle, trying to walk as softly as possible, though gave up after awhile, seeing that it made no difference in noise level around her. Eyes gazed at her as she passed down the hall of other 'private rooms.' The gazes so fierce from women that they could pierce through her inner being, and the looks from the men so disgusting and vulgar that even not meeting their eyes gave her chills. Making it past the water cooler without oogles of eyes on her behind was impossible. She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the elevator, seeing as she had it all to herself. Her tensed posture became relaxed as she calmed down from the encounter in the lion's den just earlier.

She turned to her side and looked at her reflection in the mirror that coated the elevator walls. Her blonde hair up in a bun, only her side swept bangs hung loose, no accessories, for they brought more attention to her than she already had. She blew air out of her lips, up towards her bangs, making them fly upwards before returning messily down again. "Here we go." She looked back towards the ascending numbers on the elevator till it made its stop on floor number fifteen, the floor where her boss' office was.

She stepped out of the elevator, standing tall, leaving behind the anxiety just let out in the elevator. The secretary beside the main door waved a hand, not even looking directly at her, for her to go ahead inside. It seemed as though she was disliked even high up in the floors of the office building. She stood in front of the door, gathering her courage before finally entering.

"Good Afternoon Miss Lucy Heartfilia."

She closed the door behind herself, avoiding the gaze of the person who just called out to her. "Yes, a good afternoon to you as well sir."

Lucy walked up quickly towards his desk and placed a manila packet onto it, sliding it towards it for emphasis of its importance. "My Transfer." She stepped backward, trying to make herself tall and proud looking in front of her boss. "You said yourself that I was not suited to _this_ kind of work."

Her boss reached out for the packet, carefully opening its contents, yet not taking his glazed over eyes off of Lucy. "Not suited to our printing company, yes, though a transfer to an events specialized company? More than that, I believe that secretary work is better for you. You know that too, don't you, _Lucy_?" The way he spat out her name gave her chills; she took a step back as he reached one of his grimy hands towards hers.

"That is only a copy of transfer, I already sent in the official papers signed by my team manager to the higher-ups." Lucy almost took another step back after seeing the way his face changed, though managed to stop herself and keep calm. She bowed to her 'former' boss, now that she had delivered her paperwork, "Thank you for your time." She wanted to quickly dismiss herself; however, her sweaty boss was already walking behind her while she was on her way to the door.

"If you need any help at all, I'll be pleased to consult you _Lucy_." He caressed her forearm, making her lose all of the self control that she might have had. Lucy grabbed his hand and twisted one of his fingers backwards, making him stumble away in pain.

"Don't," Lucy raised her heel to him and kicked him in the groin, "Touch me!" Her former boss fell to the floor, a clear signal that it was time to leave, and straight away. Lucy opened the door, closing it firmly behind herself. She ignored the slightly ticked off secretary at the desk and walked quickly for the elevator. This was the only time when elevators seemed to go 'too slow' for her. As soon as the door opened, she raced for her cubicle for her personal items. She hurriedly grabbed her bag, which in case of an emergency, was packed beforehand. She bowed to her cubicle, "Thank you false private room," before walking down the hall; waving and smiling to everyone she passed. "Goodbye. Thank you for taking care of me." Before they could even react to the sudden goodbye, Lucy was already taking off down the stairs, learning from experience.

_**Fairy Boulevard, "Sushi Tails"**_

_**Evening of August 12th **_

The quiet sound of the television drowned out the drizzle of rain that had been coming down since that morning. Both staff and customers of the restaurant seemed to know how to appreciate such a serene evening, and that is with as little talking as possible. Though to most people, it would seem too quite, Lucy thought it suited the place fine, after all of the things she had to listen to just this morning, it was quite a nice place to be. She ate slowly, making sure to savor each taste of her 'celebratory' sushi. Due to her excitement, she decided to order the large plate, deciding that she would take some home to eat after her bath. The shop was empty due to the rain most likely, but at least, Lucy could eat in peace without having to put up with the many stares she would get anywhere else, that's why she enjoyed frequently going the restaurant for the most part; that and the great tasting sushi.

"That it for you?"

Lucy was drawn out of heaven by a voice from her left. She turned toward the black haired man, and nodded. "Yes, thank you." She assumed he must have been a part-timer there because he looked around her age, 19. Lucy stood up and bowed to the man, "Compliments to the chef."

"I think he knows, seeing as how you come here so frequently." The man reached down for her empty plate after gingerly setting the leftovers in a to-go box and then into a bag.

Lucy, confused due to the fact that she didn't even notice the man until now, simply nodded at his comment and reached for her wallet. An icy cold hand stopped her before she could pull it out of her bag, "Yes?" Lucy looked back up at the man, whose hand was now on her arm, not expecting him to be staring straight into her eyes. After awhile, the coldness of his hand begun to sting. Lucy yelped a bit in pain, recoiling her back a bit in the process. The man, who seemed to only now notice what he was doing, let go immediately.

"I'm sorry." His voice didn't stutter as a persons' voice should after inflicting such pain, instead it was a sort of forced 'I'm sorry.' As if he didn't say it often. The man passed to her her to-go box and bowed, "The sushi is on the house," he pointed outside, "An apology for the current weather."

Lucy, even more confused than before, nodded again to the stranger, "Thanks," and walked towards the door. She grabbed her clear, see through plastic, umbrella and opened the door, making the bell at the top of the door ring. She turned back before walking through the doorway, towards the man from before, who was scrubbing down the tables as if nothing had happened. She felt an unnatural chill run down her spine, as if the aftereffects of the touch of his skin were just starting to kick in. She got a bad gut feeling inside, but decided to ignore it and continue on her way. She walked through the doorway and out into the rain, towards home.

_**Pegasus Drive, On-route to Jewels' Apartment Complex**_

_**Evening of August 12th**_

Lucy walked towards home in no hurry, even stopping to get a hot dog on the way. She walked with a spring in her step as she listened to the sound of the light rain, drip drip dripping on the concrete sidewalk all around her. She twirled her umbrella, watching as the water bounced off of it. She looked down at her feet, they were aching from the earlier run that morning, obviously, high heels and running down multiple stair cases cannot be done without repercussions. She looked up, trying to see exactly where she was again. "Just a little farther down." She spoke out loud, not caring if the other passersby heard her. Through the light fog that the rain was creating, she spotted her apartment complex. A small Mediterranean looking complex with only four apartments. Lucy was lucky to even get the apartment in the first place, seeing as how it's last owner was moving out the exact day she happened to be passing by looking for a place to stay.

The complex was just a few blocks down and across the street. She walked quickly to get to the crosswalk before the red turned green. A sudden person in a red hoodie was standing by the side of the road, completely drenched from head to toe. Lucy, being in a hurry, decided to not even take a second glance at the person, instead just passed by. After all, a hooded person on the edge of the street is hardly anyone not dangerous. However, out of all of the people who the person could've stopped, it must have been some kind of twisted fate that she would be the one who was.

"Hey."

The surprisingly warm voice that came from the hooded figure startled the already tired Lucy. She turned after being called after, pointing to herself and looking around to make sure that she was really the one he stopped.

"Do you know how to get to Fairy Boulevard? These streets are always confusing."

Lucy nodded her head and pointed down the street, "Just keep going down until the next crosswalk, take a left, keep going down until the next crosswalk, take a right and you're on it. It's really close." The hooded person nodded as he listened to her instructions. After finishing, the hooded person rubbed the back of his hood, making some of his hair ruffle out of it. A streak of pink was all she could see in the mist. Lucy was about to be on her way until the hooded person suddenly reached out toward her chest, making her jump backwards before he even said anything; she dropped her half eaten hot dog and ran to the crosswalk, making it just in time to cross the street and make it back to her apartment. Just the thought of having him touch her sent her into a sweat, she started to strip after locking her door, and let down her hair from its bun, in preparation for a bath. For some reason, her body was unusually hot all of a sudden, especially for such a wet day outside.

_**Paradise Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Morning of August 13th **_

Lucy stared up at the building, which seemed to be more than at least seven stories high, much smaller than her last job's building was. However, its size seemed to have no affect on the amount of work it brought in. A man bumped into Lucy in his rush for the door, making her stumble forward, though he was gone before she could retort to his action. People were rushing in and out of the doors, carrying all kind of papers and boards with various writings in various fonts. Lucy decided that it was best to make her way into the building before she got hit upside the head with a poster board.

The lobby was even better than she expected. Dark brown marble floors, tan walls, long curtains, fancy furniture. The clanking of heels against marble was even less than she expected it to be, a good change in her opinion. She walked forward toward the desk in the middle of the lobby and pressed the bell on the counter, making a little ting sound come from it. The woman at the desk looked up from her work on her computer, annoyed, "I am right here, no need for that."

Lucy's hand recoiled away from the bell, less enthusiastic about her first day now, "Sorry, I've always wanted to do that."

"They all do."

Lucy clenched her fists at the way the woman was automatically grouping her with all of the people before her. Though she let it go, after all, being at the front desk is not fun. Lucy knew this from experience. "Lucy Heartfilia. I was told to come to the front desk to receive my room assignment." The woman at the desk eyed Lucy from the top of her head to the middle of her stomach, for which that was all she could see due to the counter separating them. She clicked at her computer, and within a few clicks, she looked back up again at Lucy.

"Floor five. Main Branch C of the Planning department." Lucy lifted her hand, about to ask a question when the woman interrupted her, "And before you ask, all you have to do is go to the elevators over there, get on, go to floor five and then down the hall till you reach planning room C. Not that hard right?" Her sarcastic demeanor irritated Lucy, but, the question she was going to ask was answered before she could even open her mouth, so at least the woman was efficient. Lucy bowed before turning on her heel, steadying her bag at her side as she walked over towards the elevators, with miraculously, no stares towards her.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Five, Room C**_

_**Morning of August 13th**_

Dead silence after Lucy opened the door to the unsuspecting co-workers, or more actually, only one co-worker in the midst of the six desks that sat front to front, forming a huge table in the middle of the room. Rows of books and other assorted items lined the shelves around the room, a row of large windows in the back of the room, across from the door of the room, in which light poured through them. Her co-worker looked at Lucy for a while, before looking back up at the clock, then back at Lucy, "You're early Lucy." Lucy was startled at the quick familiarism her co-worker showed. The woman stood up and walked over to Lucy, holding out her hand as if waiting for a handshake, "Nice to meet ya, my name's Levi McGarden, 19 years old."

Lucy looked down at her hand, a slight warm feeling grew in her chest that she hadn't felt from anybody before, "Yes, Nice to meet you too. Lucy Heartfilia, 19 years old." Lucy shook her comfortable hand and smiled, an act she hadn't been able to show for real for a long time. The woman, Levi, rubbed the back of her blue hair, not at all put up or neat, just held back by a loose orange headband, and looked around the office.

"Sorry about the emptiness, we all thought you wouldn't be here until the afternoon and everyone is out on work. So here I am, all alone for the time being," Levi looked back towards Lucy, looking her up and down, "Well not alone, I'm here with your formal self." Levi laughed at Lucy's white dress shirt, black pinstripe skirt and black stockings with heels. Levi herself stood in the office wearing a pair of light blue skinny jeans, pink and gray vans, a black belt with multicolor studs and a t-shirt with the words 'Love Me' written on it in pink and an odd design of a familiar looking white dog with an orangish yellow cone for a nose in the background of it. "But don't worry about it, it's your first day so of course you wouldn't know," Levi pointed at Lucy's heels, "It's hard to run things in and out of the building in uncomfortable clothes and the work wear here is casual, so just come in anything comfortable to you. Oh! Unless it's inspection time, though we'll give you a notice ahead of time."

Lucy nodded, then looked down at her heels, her inside thoughts singing praise that they would be inside the closet for at least a month. Levi walked around the middle section of desks, to a desk to the left diagonal of hers, "Your desk is right here, feel free to settle in. Our Room Manager won't be back until tomorrow anyway, so you won't get anything to do today." Levi walked back over to her desk and sat down, kicking her legs up on top of it, "I will be listening to radio football." She titled her head forward, grinning, meaning that most likely, there was no work to be done and that her team was winning the game.

Lucy sat down, this place was definitely more laid back than her last job place was. She slipped off her shoes underneath her desk and shifted for her laptop from her bag. She opened it and turned it on, glancing at the door of the office to make sure that no one was entering anytime soon. She logged into a webpage, opening up a blog by someone by the name of 'LuLu.' Lucy logged into the blog, her blog. The avatar picture showed the same familiar white dog with the orangish yellow cone nose. "That's where I knew it from." Lucy concluded with a faint smile on her face as she glanced back towards Levi, whose team had apparently scored a point, since she flailed her arms around in such a happy manner. She looked at her shirt with the same dog on it and nodded in approvement of such a thing.

Lucy glided her finger across her laptop's sensor, double tapping the sensor so as to select the 'add new' in the blog section of the webpage. She rested her hands onto the keyboard and took a breath in, calming her nerves. She began to move her fingers across the keyboard, forming words on the blank space on the webpage. She typed.

'This is my thirtieth blog since just two months ago (since I have decided to do one of these every two days or so) and I must say, a lot has changed since I left home. I still slightly miss the people I have left behind, though I am managing and I'm sure that they don't miss me much anyway.'

Lucy stopped herself, thinking back on her memories. The smiling gardener, chefs, even the people who swept the front of the house whenever the leaves would fall off of the trees. Though it seemed fake at first to her, all of their eyes would smile, and Lucy knew how to spot fake smiles, so soon they became dear to her. Her heart ached as she read what she had typed, she started to delete it, determined to retype that horrible sentence.

All of a sudden, Levi jumped up from her seat, causing her rolling chair to fling backwards and the things on her desk to fall over, "Yes!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and raised her fists up, startling Lucy enough to make her fall backward, away from her computer. Her arms reached out for something to grab onto and succeeded in grabbing onto the edge of the computer, preventing her from falling over, however, it caused the sensor on the computer to double click on the option 'post blog' on the webpage. Lucy looked up at Levi, who was jumping for joy, then back at her posted blog. She rubbed the back of her head, making the bun of her hair loose and messy. She reached down to click 'edit blog' when Levi leaned over the table to catch her attention.

"Lucy! They won! That's six hundred dollars from Billurd in Planning Room F!" Levi began to do a dance around the room, completely overjoyed at her early shopping money just earned, "Let's go Lucy! Lunch is on me today!" Her overly friendly co-worker skipped over to the door of the room and grabbed her black leather jacket, "C'mon my new co-worker!" She bobbed up and down at the door of room C, expecting Lucy to follow along.

Lucy looked back down toward her computer at her blog for a moment, wondering if she should edit it now or later and she gave in. Lucy closed her laptop and set her bag onto her desk, slipping it back into its rightful place inside it and slipped back on her heels, "We're getting sushi right?" Lucy smiled at the confused Levi.

_**Magnolia Station**_

_**Subway train on-route to Pegasus Drive**_

_**Evening of August 13th**_

Lucy stretched her sore legs, which were yanked left and right after leaving work with Levi, who seemed much too excited for her own good. They ended up going to three sum-odd restaurants, trying every single thing on the menu, completely spending all of the money that Levi had earned just hours earlier. Lucy laughed outwardly remembering all the things they ate. She lifted her tired hand up to her chest, where her heart lay underneath; a warm sensation swirling around inside. Lucy wouldn't call her a friend, though just calling her a co-worker seemed already too modest.

She was about to enjoy a quiet moment on the train when her phone started to vibrate. She shuffled it out of her bag and flicked it open to see that she had an email. An email notifying her that someone had posted a comment on her blog just an hour earlier. Surprised, Lucy went to her blog page, not bothering to log on, and read the comment. The first comment she had received since beginning it. It read 'Idiot! Go back to the people who care about you and never leave again!' Lucy flinched at the harshness in it, she pouted at the screen, dissatisfied.

"What?" Lucy flicked the phone back shut angrily. Even though she was going to edit it, she still got scolded for even thinking such a thought, by someone by the name of 'Dragoon.' Someone she didn't even know acted like they knew everything. Lucy felt her anger rise inside of herself, making her loose sense of her thoughts. She flinched when the train stopped to let more passengers onto the train. She breathed in and out, managing to calm herself and make such feelings go away, soon she was back to normal.

No one got on the train at the stop, which was unusually even at that time of night. Lucy dismissed it as nothing and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of the clanking wheels of the subway train as it made its way forward on its tracks.

A sudden rumble of the car of the train made her grumble, narrowlingly opening her eyes, jumping when she spotted a red hooded person in front of her, their legs opened wide into a man's posture; both hands laid on his knees. Lucy continued to stare at the person as she had sworn that no one got on at the last stop and there was no one in the car besides herself even before that. Another rumble of the train caused the hooded person's hood to move back slightly, revealing a pink streak of hair in the process. Lucy jumped up, remembering him, "You're!"

The hooded man looked up at her, not surprised in the least that he met her again, "And here I was trying to avoid moving vehicles." His head launched forward as his hands shot up against his mouth. Lucy noticed the sweat coming off of him.

"H-Hey," Lucy couldn't help but feel nervous, especially with this burning sensation tingling the whole of her body, "Um. Did you ever get to Fairy Boulevard?"

He ignored her question and looked back up at her, his shaking eyes trying to get a better look at her face. "That girl from before?" He leaned back, satisfied with his conclusion, "Erza said there wouldn't be any civilians on this train." The train continued to speed down the tracks, at a noticeably faster pace than before. The man huddled over again, this time, the color from his face drained.

Lucy stumbled towards him, unsure what to do, and slightly shaken by the train's speed, "Are you having motion sickness?" She reached out to touch him, her fingertips grew hot with every inch she made closer to his face. A sudden jerk in the train caused her to fall back, grabbing onto the railing of the seats. "What's going on?"

The man stuttered a laugh at her before looking up again, "You. Should…Run."

The back door of the car of the train suddenly crashed open, making the car shake violently. Lucy held onto the railing as her body shook in fear as she watched what came out from behind the smoke of the explosion.

A large, black animal, looking something like a bull, except with black shimmering scales revved up its large horns on the side of its head. Its jaw snapped open and closed like a crocodile's, a slimy liquid pouring from its fangs. As if the stench of it wasn't enough to snap Lucy back into reality, a hand suddenly reached out in front of her, grabbing her and yanking her backwards. She yelped as her shoulder slammed onto the iron floor of the train car. She pulled herself up to see the guy in the red hoodie, leaned over, standing up in front of her, facing the beast.

The monster rammed forward, lurching towards him, its horns tearing at his clothes as he managed to grab the base of its horns and hold it back. Lucy could see his olive shaded eyes, staring at her from his peripheral, as if yelling to her to run. Mid-struggle, his hoodie was ripped to shreds as he dodged a snap of its jaws, making his pink, spiky hair come free from his bonds. He struggled to keep up with the monster as it continued to charge forward. All he could do was step in front of it to stop it again. "Go!" Lucy managed to get up on her feet, staggering over to a pole on the edge of a piece of seating. The train continued to speed down the tracks. She pondered as to why he would be yelling at her when the monster was obviously after _him_.

Lucy looked up to the monster's face, which towered over his shoulder, its yellow, glazed eyes looking straight ahead.

Straight at her.

It was after _her_, not _him_.

She took steps back before pivoting quickly, almost tripping over her own high heeled feet, towards the door leading to the forward train car from where she currently was. She fumbled at the handle when a crash drawed her attention away from the lock. The, now un-hooded, man flew towards the window to the left of the monster, falling unmoving against the torn seating. Lucy looked towards the door of the train again, the train continued to move quickly down the tunnel. She took off her heel and hit it upon the glass of the locked door, trying to break the glass. She screamed as the monster rammed its horns just above where her head was.

Lucy collapsed to the ground, trembling as her eyes darted back to the man who still laid unmoving just a few feet from her, then back to the hungry eyes of the beast that stared her down. Hey eyes blanked in and out as the pain of her legs and arms grew heavier as the train came to an abrupt and unexplained stop. A sudden shadow hopped up onto its back and launched itself in between herself and the monster. The image of flames flashed in front of her eyes, making them try to focus on the being in front of her. The man, who was seemingly out of combat just earlier, stood between her and the thing that wanted her dead. "Don't know why it's after you but," He clenched his fists, causing the flames centered on them to grow bigger, "It makes me you even more interesting." He reared back his fist and pounded the startled monster. Making it go flying back down where it came from, though apparently, not for long.

Lucy got back on her knees and watched it shake off the blow and come running back down the train car with even more furiousity, "You just ticked it off more."

"I don't see you helping out any," the man ran forward, colliding with the monster as he had done before, though this time, he sent it flying back, as if the level in power was clearly set in stone. He turned around and walked toward Lucy, a wide grin playing across his face.

Lucy picked herself up to her feet, preparing to step forward when she saw a puff of smoke come hurling itself at his unknowledgeable back, she lunged forward, the images of his motionless body plaguing her mind, "No!" She reached out to him.

A sudden light engulfed the train car as water rushed from the windows out of nowhere, sending her backwards once more and ramming her back onto the wall of the train car, only to catch a glimpse of a fish's tail before it dissipated, leaving a worn out, charred and soaked bull like creature lying on the cold metal floor. Lucy fell to the ground, her messy bun had only grown messier, already out of its place, in waves in front of her face and tangled in different places. She massaged it out of her eyes as she tried to see where the man had gone. She spotted him in front of her, twisting his black t-shirt to drain the water out of it, he turned to her after noticing her glance, "That was pretty amazing lady." He took a few steps toward her, making her leap up from her slumped over position. The heat coming off of his body made her hair start to dry as he got closer. She looked around the train car, searching for her bag, spotting it safely stored at the top of the train car, away from the water and the damage that plagued the place. She got up and took it down from its high position, making sure it didn't get wet, hugging it when she realized it didn't.

"All of that and you're worried about your bag?" She flinched, suddenly remembering that this was not the time to be rejoicing, the train was stopped at the last station for the day, her station. She dragged her now shoeless feet over to the door of the train, looking around to find no one there. "What are you," before the guy of pink hair could finish, she bolted for the stairs leading out onto the street, yelling could be heard behind her, "I can't just leave it here. Hey!"

She looked back to him before the train got out of view, only to see his figure, standing inside the train car, looking up at her, the burning sensation within her made her instincts kick in as she ran, hearing one last thing before his voice was drowned out by the city lights and sounds.

"You can't run away from me!"

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**You also can't ran away from the review button! Mwhahahaha!...Not really...You can run...But that means that I wouldn't be able to hear what you think about it.**

**So review!**

**and tell me how you feel!...about the story haha**


	2. Fantasy Becomes Reality

**Back from vacation and I'm glad to be back in air conditioning and internet access heaven. Had to add the finishing touches to it before I posted it so it's pretty late at night right now, though I always post my stories late at night so it's not really all that different for me. **

**I thought it was pretty cool how it's August 14****th**** and the story starts on the 14****th**** of August, so that made my day for some odd reason. **

**Gotta thank all of you who gave such inspiring reviews to the first chapter. It's like I hear **_**epic**_** singing in the background whenever I read one. Why epic? Don't really know why but epic is good. **_**Epic is so so good.**_

**So enjoy chapter two of 'Burn this City to Ashes.'**

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_**Chapter Two: Fantasy Becomes Reality**_

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Morning of August 14th **_

All that she needed to do was forget. Forget what had happened the night before; all about the man with the pink hair. Though it was tough to forget it when the memory of him seemed burned into her mind and her clothes. The material her clothes were made of was apparently not fire, water and saliva proof. She didn't notice exactly how much damage had been inflicted on her until she had woken up that morning after her phone alerted her that it was time to go to work. The black stockings not only had runs, but gashes in them from the broken glass and the skirt's edges were burnt so much so that it could be seen as a mini-skirt; something she wasn't exactly that looking forward to wearing. And her heels? Nowhere to be found, no problem though, as she didn't like them much anyway. Amazingly however, though she was coated with dust, water and ash, not a single cut or bruise was to be found on her body.

She stared up at the building that was her new work place, not very enthusiastic about going to work after such an event, though happy to wear casual clothes; as if she had much of a choice. She moved her hand up to the side of her head, making sure the bigger than normal red clip that held that side of her hair back hadn't fallen out of place. Walking into the building in black flats made her a bit self-conscious about how she looked. She wore gray skinny jeans, a black belt and a white t-shirt that had a tiny heart pattern that turned from red all the way to purple, in accordance with the rainbow, going down the front of it. She waved to the woman at the front desk as she passed; knowing full well that she didn't like her, it was the only enjoyment that Lucy could get out of this hopeless situation of hers. Once more, as she made her way to the elevator, not a single person gave a glance her way.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Five, Room C**_

_**Morning of August 14th **_

Streamers and confetti flew in front of her view as she opened the door of Room C, almost startling her enough that she tripped backwards. She grabbed onto the doorframe, preventing herself from falling as she looked up from her now disheveled bangs to see her familiar co-worker and another person, a very tall, big person. Another confetti popper blew up in her face just as she thought she had a view of her surroundings. "Lucy's welcome party!" Lucy flipped her hair back with a light whip of her head. She smiled at her friendly co-worker before turning her attention back towards the bigger person she had glanced at just earlier.

Levi, a bit let down that Lucy didn't react as loudly as she thought, followed Lucy's gaze to find out what she was looking for. When her eyes turned towards the bigger man next to her, she let out a laugh and pointed at him with her thumb, "This here is Elfman. He's what you would call our decorative expert." Lucy nodded, unsure why such a large and obviously fit man would actually pick decoration as his interest. She continued to stare at him with large eyes, making him scowl at her in response. Levi stifled a laugh at Lucy's reaction to Elman, "Don't worry, he won't bite, just crush you to death." Lucy stepped backward, not at all encouraged by her co-workers ability to crush bones.

Elfman eyed her down while Levi continued to be amused at Lucy's misgivings. He took a step to his right, revealing a large box labeled 'Floor 2, Room D' in chicken scratch handwriting. He lifted it with ease and urged it towards Lucy, "Any real man can handle this much."

Lucy looked up at him, confused and a bit annoyed at his tone, "Real Man?" She was forced to take the package that Elfman practically threw towards her. Her knees bent at the very weight of it as her arms struggled to keep it suspended in the air. She looked towards Levi, a light gleaming in her eyes, as if asking for help. Levi hopped as she moved herself towards Lucy, holding her arms up as she gently pushed her out the door.

"Go go! Your first job is to deliver this package. Congratulations!" Levi continued to force her out the door while Elfman, Lucy's new intimidating co-worker, threw colorful confetti at her.

The door slammed shut in front of her face, a clear sign that going in and pleading with them would in no way help her situation, perhaps only make it worse. She stumbled over to the elevator, the huge package weighing down at her like an anchor to a boat. Not even wanting to know what was inside, she made her way over to the elevator, trying to look as professional as possible as she squinted and furrowed her brow.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Two, Room D**_

_**Morning of August 14**__**th**_

Lucy's stumble had been reduced to a waddle as she had finally made it to the second floor, room D of the building. It would have been a much easier job if not for the elevator going out of order due to some weird technical difficulties. She slugged her foot up to the door and kicked it as hard as she could in her crippled position. It opened quickly, revealing a man just a few inches taller than herself, with light brown hair and a smile playing on his face; it was hard to believe that he was her senior. Lucy glanced back to the chaos going on in the room behind him; four people, six desk, papers everywhere, laptops clicking, just chaos. He looked down at the box Lucy was holding and slid his hands under it, hugging it from the bottom, and lifting it easily out of her arms. He looked back at Lucy then at the mess behind himself, "Floor two deals with records. We record event information and send out the invitations." He opened the box in his hands, in which were a series of binders that were set orderly on top of each other, "You're new right? I've never seen you around before, so you must be." He glanced at the box than back at Lucy, "Just like floor five to give the newbies all the tough work, it's the most infamous floor in the company. Hang in there." He pivoted on his foot and closed the door behind himself, not giving Lucy any time to respond to his quick comments. She figured that it was typical of someone who had a lot of work to do to be a little unwilling to wait for a response from someone, so she decided to take the word of wisdom she had just gotten, if they could be called that at all, and make her way back up the stairs towards the familiar room in which she had a place in, a place to be, just like everyone seemed to have in room D.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Five, Room C**_

_**Morning of August 14th **_

Lucy let out a sigh of relief as she leaned over and hugged the door to room C of floor five. She opened the door slowly, a smile played her face for the man from before was contagious. She entered the room, half expected to be greeted by Levi with welcoming arms, though of course, this was not the case. The room was empty except for Elfman, who apparently had the desk to the left of hers, who was answering calls while flipping through various samples of decorations. She sighed, not sure why she was feeling an uncomfortable chill run up her spine as she walked back to her desk.

Lucy reached out for her chair when an arm spread out in front of her, out stretched towards the edge of the desk next to hers, and at the end of it, an index finger that extended to a point. She looked at Elfman confused, as he was still answering questions from the supposed costumer on the other line, then she looked to where he was pointing and there sat another large box labeled 'Floor 3, Room F, Event Scheduling Floor.' She looked at Elfman, who made no effort to look back, still continuing to point at the box. She narrowed her eyes at him as she shuffled over to the box, pointing at it. This, Elfman reacted to; he moved his arm towards the door of the room in the most intimidating way that she had ever seen. She was ordered to take out the box, all while the said man smiled at the customer on the other side of the phone.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Top Floor, Executive Offices**_

_**Afternoon of August 14th**_

Lucy skipped up to the desk of 'Mr. Jellal's' secretary, happy and pleased with her last job of the day being so simple. Elfman told her to take the manila packet up to the president's office, which she was pleased to do since the recent fix of the elevator around three o'clock. Lucy looked around the desk then towards the doors that should have led to the big boss' office, no secretary was in sight. She slumped her arm down onto the desk, figuring she could relax since there was no one around. She closed her eyes and thought back to exactly how many boxes she had delivered that day, wiggling her toes as she got into the twenties. She leaned over the counter of the desk, stretching her back as much as she could, and purring almost cat like in satisfaction. A voice calling out behind her sent her back flinging up, making it pop at the sudden movement. Lucy crouched back over, rubbing her back as she turned to the voice.

"Is there a problem?" A woman of red long hair stood behind Lucy, the stance she held was definitely that of a confident woman. She walked forward, peering over Lucy, who was now awestruck at the woman's beauty, towards the manila packet. "Delivery? Which floor?" She slid the packet away from underneath Lucy's hand. Lucy felt almost pathetic looking in front of the woman, who stood just a few inches taller than herself and seemed to have an odd aura that crushed Lucy's confidence. The word to be used? Dominating. Definitely Dominating. The woman slipped the contents out of the packet, eyeing them before returning her gaze to Lucy once more, "Which floor?" She repeated her question again, this time with a more demanding voice then before.

Lucy fumbled over her own feet as she readjusted her back to straighten, "Floor Five, Room C Ma'am." Lucy almost felt compelled to salute the woman and had to mentally hit herself in the head to stop from doing so. The woman's face reverted back to the calm expression she had presented to Lucy at first. She nodded and walked behind the counter, to the secretary's desk. Lucy wasn't sure whether she should leave or stay, thus she chose the former of them and continued to stare at the woman.

After a few shuffling of papers, the woman looked up at Lucy, tilting her head in an expression that looked like confusion or something like it, "Was there something else?" Lucy flinched and shook her head no quickly, not seeming to stop the motion anytime soon. The woman pulled a sheet of paper from the desk, sliding it across the counter to Lucy, whose head shaking stopped after the movement, "Give this to your decorative coordinator, he should understand its meaning." Lucy nodded yes; as if these were the only movements she could manage under the pressure of the woman's aura, and picked up the single sheet of paper from the counter. She bowed, not sure why after she did so, and walked away from the desk, towards the elevator; her arms and legs not bending as she walked stiffly. A woman came from the corner of the hall as Lucy turned, making them almost collide together. Lucy tilted her head a bit as she saw the woman come to a complete stop as she saw what was in front of her.

"M-Miss Erza Scarlet. What are you doing here?" The woman seemed obviously guilty of something, which made Lucy walk a bit slower to the elevator, her curious side not wanting to leave without digging up some dirt.

"You left you post?" Lucy recognized the voice as the woman who had spoken to her just moments before.

"I-I'm sorry. I just needed to take a package to the first floor."

"You stink of cigarettes; please refrain from doing that during work hours."

Lucy shook her head, sympathizing with the woman who had screwed up. Though she shrugged it off as she pressed the elevator down button, for it wasn't her problem that the woman had had an unauthorized break. She racked her brain as she waited; searching for the name she had heard. "Erza?" She tapped her foot as she continued to think, "Sounds familiar." The elevator doors opened abruptly, making Lucy flinch in surprise. She got on, forgetting what she had been trying to remember.

_**Fairy Boulevard **_

_**Sushi Tails**_

_**Evening of August 14th **_

Lucy sighed as she found herself in front of the familiar restaurant once again. For some reason, she would always end up there whilst being lost in thoughts. She stared at the door, which seemed to have a welcoming aroma of vanilla coming from it, most likely from the incense set up inside the place. She opened the doors, giving up with the idea of leaving, and found a pair of grayish-black eyes look up at her, filled with no shock at her arrival. After a moment, the owner of the eyes looked back down towards a pair of customers, continuing his work. Lucy shuffled over to an empty table, setting her bag down next to her as she got settled in at the low table accompanied by floor pillows; which were used on all of the window seating areas instead of the stools and chairs used in the middle and counter of the place. She looked out the window; the sky had been twisted into a shade of gray that was not seen just that afternoon, "Rain again tonight?"

"Looks that way." Lucy looked upward, towards the voice, and watched as a hand placed a glass of what appeared to be water down in front of her, "You don't drink alcohol so water is the next best choice." Lucy furrowed her brow, at first wondering how he knew, then remembering what he had told her just two days before.

Lucy eyed the glass before picking it up due to the pressure the man was giving her as she stood next to her, "So you've worked here awhile then?" She took a gulp of the water, trying to avoid eye contact with the man who seemingly had nothing better to do. She finished the water and set it back down on the table.

"I've served you every single time," He picked up the empty glass, refilling it with the jug of water on the tray he was holding before setting it back down in front of her, "You either have short term memory, which I doubt, or you're just a little different from the rest of the people who come here."

Lucy eyed the newly refilled glass of water in front of herself, her stomach not eager for it in the least, however, she picked it up and held it anyway, "What's that supposed to mean?" She looked up at him over the rim of the glass as she took a sip, not really knowing what to expect from him.

"Exactly what it sounds like." He looked down at her, his eyes not moving from her own, "No wasabi, large sushi plate right?" Lucy gripped her one-third full glass of water before biting her lip, not sure how to answer his all knowing statement. "A bit of wasabi then?" He reached down and placed his hand onto the glass that was still in hers; the tips of his fingers touching hers sent a cold sensation through her body, "More water?" He filled the glass again, despite it not being empty yet, and placed it back onto the table before smiling at her and walking to the back of the restaurant, through a walkway, which seemed to lead to the kitchen. She looked back down at the water, her stomach now furious and mumbling at the sight of it.

"He's messing with me."

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Lobby Floor**_

_**Afternoon of August 15th**_

Lucy looked around the lobby at all of the top management that seemed to be having meetings there. She normally would try to avoid the lobby floor if she could, all due to this very fact. She looked out of place as she made her way over to the front desk in converse, jeans and a t-shirt. Even though it really wasn't what she would usually wear in her off time, wearing jeans instead of her adored skirts and shorts to work seemed more appropriate, if it was at all. The woman at the desk saw her coming and her customer grin turned into a deeper scowl as she got closer. Lucy avoided eye contact as she questioned the woman, "I was told there was a visitor for me?"

The woman rolled her eyes and huffed as she pointed towards the front doors, "He refused to leave without seeing you, says he used to work at your old company. We told him to wait outside." Lucy opened her mouth to say a word of thanks when the woman lifted her hand and cut her off, giving her a shooing motion towards the front door. Lucy narrowed her eyes, for even if she wasn't the most likeable person, there was no reason to be so cruel. She pouted as she finally reached the front doors, peeking out of them when she did; which earned her a look from a business man whose path she was blocking. She stepped out of the way apologetically and slowly walked more forward to the front of the building. She turned and looked around when she reached the fountain in the centre, not sure what to be looking for, her eyes scanned the trees and bushes that were strategically planted around the fountain for the building to look more inviting.

She jumped forward when a hand snaked onto her shoulder. "Lucy Heartfilia? Nice to see you again."

Lucy turned to the blonde haired man, who wore glasses, a sweater vest with a blue tie, and tan pants. She squeaked slightly, fear rising up in her for no reason. She had the urge to run away, but her common sense stopped her from doing so. She didn't speak, for another squeak might have come out if she tried, instead, she found herself not able to remember the man in front of her. He was supposed to be an old coworker but his face just didn't ring a bell. "Do I know you?"

The man's face shifted for a moment, making Lucy tremble, "Of course. From accounting remember?"

Lucy shook her head no, her fear moving her feet into a quick walk down the street before she could make sense of her own fright. The man followed behind her in his own quick step, yelling after her to stop and that there was no reason to be scared, which never usually calms a person down when they hear it in the kind of situation that she was in. She must have bumped into twenty some-odd people in her quick dash for her life, which for some reason didn't feel like a hyperbole. She turned back to the man, who was still following her in his calm and collected manner, making her feel like one of the teens in a horror movie in which the villain is walking as slow as can be yet she couldn't get away; the only other worse thing that could happen were if she were to trip over some kind of condensed blob of air.

"You're fear looks delicious." Lucy felt chills as she moved her will to break into a run. Her speed made her hair fly back as she went faster than she even thought she ever could. She turned a corner into a crowded street of taxis; apparently a traffic jam had clogged the street. She looked back as she jumped over the hood of cars, something she saw in the movies and had always wanted to attempt, though never in this sort of circumstance. She looked back at the man who had decided that taking a route over the cars was not worth his time, as he continued down the opposite street of Lucy, smiling as she squirmed over another taxi. When she reached the other side of the road, she stopped her tired legs, which were burning and had neither enough strength nor endurance to continue to leap better yet run. She walked calmly back towards the way she came, not taking her eyes off of the man across the street, who seemed to give up his pursuit and was now standing still in place.

And the worse came into reality, Lucy's lower body was yanked backwards, making her upper body slam onto the concrete of the sidewalk, no pedestrian even questioned the sudden move, instead ignored her silent plea for help. She picked herself up onto her elbows and looked towards her feet as if demanding them to answer for the crime they just committed. However, it wasn't her feet's fault; instead, a large black hand seemed to be gripping tighter around her thin ankle. She looked for the origin of the arm and spotted it being rooted from the dark shadow of a taxi near herself. She yelped in pain as it proceed to pulled backwards on her ankle, making her legs drag on the concrete. She pulled at her ankle to free it from the grasp of the hand, deciding that stabbing it with her hair pin was her only option; she yanked it from her hair and proceeded to do just that. It drew back quickly, somehow feeling the pain. Lucy launched up to her feet and stepped backwards, looking up towards the other side of the street, where the man still stood, however, a large black shadow grew in size around him, seemingly invisible to the people who walked past him.

She shook, not knowing how to protect herself from such a thing. The man raised an arm up in her direction, which made yet another black hand shoot up from the shadow of the car. She kicked at it when it came towards her, turning her eyes back to her attacker after it recoiled back. The man smirked at her struggle, raising his other arm as a flurry of shadow hands make their way towards her from the ground. Her eyes shook as she watched the man, her legs not willing to run any longer, she would have nowhere to run anyway. She felt her body slowly giving out on her when the man was suddenly sent hurling towards the wall of the building he stood beside. Falling to the ground, covered in what seemed like some sort of white gleam. She flinched when she found herself looking at another man who stood over him. The distance between them should have made him hard to see, but after recognizing him, there was no way Lucy could've tried not to.

The same black haired man from the evening before stood where the 'shadow' man had just before, apparently recognizing her as well. The time they continued to stare at each other seemed endless. Lucy no longer felt the fear she had before, though a different feeling welled up inside of her that made her shiver. He made no movements as he stared at her from across the street, his face looked puzzled from afar. He turned to his pocket, the only time he had moved his eyes away since he first saw her, and pulled out his phone. Nodding to the person on the other side before hanging up. He mouthed a few words to Lucy then pivoted and ran in the opposite direction of her, turning the corner and leaving her sight. However, Lucy, being both mentally and physically drained, not to mention a bad lip reader, understood none of it.

Why was there some strange man claiming he knew her trying to catch her? What was that strange thing he was doing? And why was that man there afterward?

All of it was too much, and seeing as there were plenty of taxis around her vicinity, Lucy took one back to work before signing out early.

_**Fairy Boulevard **_

_**Sushi Tails**_

_**Evening of August 16th **_

Lucy hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. Once more, she found herself in front of the restaurant, except this time, she was determined to not go in. As she turned however, she almost bumped into a woman a bit taller than herself. She looked up after doing so, seeing a shade of red that seemed she recognized. "Are you going in or are you just going to stand there?" Lucy's voice stuttered as she tried to find the right words to address the woman. "Shall we go in together then?" The woman grabbed onto Lucy's arm as she dragged her into the restaurant. Lucy struggled to cover her face with both of her hands, a sorry attempt that did not go unnoticed. The woman stopped dragging Lucy and instead, took a seat next to the window, not sparing a second glance.

Lucy uncovered her face after she realized she was no longer being pulled forward. She turned to see the red haired woman sitting calmly outside the window, the space across from her at the table open. Lucy looked around, making sure there was no certain black-haired man there. Oddly enough, he was nowhere to be found, a woman with long wavy black hair was in his place now, wearing the familiar blue apron with the logo of the shop written on it. Lucy heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that she wouldn't have to deal with explaining or hearing the explanation of such a confusing event. She walked slowly over towards the seat across from the woman, who smiled confidently, as if she knew Lucy wouldn't leave. "Now then. You were the young woman who visited the president's office with a package correct? I never forget a face." The woman still had her boasting smile playing on her face, as if showing the signs of stubbornness beneath it, something Lucy could see immediately that dealing with this woman was not going to be the easiest thing ever.

Lucy nodded to her, placing her hands onto the table, her bag lying close to her as she did so, "Yes. Elfman sent me up there." The woman nodded in satisfaction at the sound of his name, as if he was someone she trusted greatly. She picked up her arm and waved to the black haired woman over on the stool in front of the counter. The woman stood up and walked over to them, not at all enthusiastic, though it was obvious she had no choice but to respond.

"What's up Erza?" The black haired woman scratched the back of her head, "Don't tell me you're actually here for the sushi this time?" The woman sitting across from Lucy, the red-haired beauty, Erza, shook her head no.

"Where's Gray?" Erza looked around the restaurant, looking for something, and Lucy, who for some reason found herself feeling confused a lot lately, felt that this moment in time was no different. She looked around the room as well; following Erza's gaze as she apparently was looking for either one, a person named Gray or two, the color gray. However, the way she was looking, it must have been the former.

"The master sent him out one a job yesterday afternoon. He hasn't been back since." The black haired woman looked around as well now, as if she herself didn't really understand her statement. "You want two large plates? Since you came all the way over here anyway." She glanced at Lucy, who widened her eyes at the way she was being looked at, as if the woman was judging her with her eyes, though it was slightly unsurprising at the same time.

"How did you know what I want-" Before Lucy could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by the woman.

"He always talks about you. Amazing you order the large plate almost every day. No wasabi for you or is today a bad day for you?" The woman stared at Lucy, waiting for her to answer. Though it looked like she wasn't going to anytime soon, for she was too stupefied to even answer. Had the black haired man talked about her? So much so that this woman immediately knows what she wants to eat before she says anything? Even the way she only eats sushi with wasabi when she's having a bad day? Lucy's heart leapt a bit at the thought that he knew so much about her little habit, her heart beat faster when the woman opened her mouth again, "He said you don't talk much. Wasabi today then? And constant refills of water if I remember. Be right back with that."

Erza stopped her before she left, "Thank you Cana."

"No problem." The woman rubbed her stomach as she slumped over to the entryway to the kitchen. Erza looked back to Lucy, who turned to look back at her slowly.

"Nice to know there's a newbie who actually enjoys the subtle flavors of sushi." The way she spoke of it made Lucy think that she must also be completely insane, like all of the people she seemed to be meeting lately. She extended a hand to Lucy, who reluctantly shook it, "I am Erza Scarlet, nice to meet you new co-worker."

Lucy felt warmth flow into her body, a similar experience that she had felt just a few days earlier from Levi. She smiled at Erza, who smiled back confidently, "Lucy Heartfilia, 19. Nice to meet you."

"So easily you reveal you age. A woman must have some secrets you know." Lucy let out a laugh at her, something that her body had seemed waiting to do for the last few days. She felt the stress drain out of her as the night went on and soon she had forgotten all of the things that seemed to be happening around her without explanation.

_**Magnolia Station**_

_**Last Stop at Edoras Drive**_

_**Evening of August 16th **_

Lucy smiled to herself as she stepped off of the train, finishing off her coke bottle that she had bought at a vending machine after leaving Sushi Tails. She felt warm inside and she was committed to enjoying it to the fullest, deciding that she would go out of her way to find a recycle can. She looked around the column to find the recycling bin next to the trash can. She satisfyingly placed it in, happy to find one, which rarely happened. She spun on her heel and hummed to herself as she took large steps towards the stairs of the subway station. She shuffled past a man in red who was standing in front of the stairs, her own happiness making her not realize exactly what kind of situation she was now in.

"Can't believe you get on one of those things each day." Lucy turned quickly, her eardrums recognizing the voice immediately, despite only hearing it upon a few occasions. She froze in place as her eyes shook to try to somehow see it as some kind of illusion. The owner of the voice grinned, "Found ya." Lucy twisted forward quickly, running up the stairs in an attempt to escape from the thing that threatened her current normal reality. She heard him laugh behind her. "You're just making it more fun." She heard a rush of footsteps follow her as she ran down the street, rain pouring down on the city streets, once more, no one giving a second glance to the event occurring before them. Lucy crossed the street at a crosswalk, racing for her apartment, her haven. "You're pretty fast you know?" Lucy shifted her head slightly to glance at how far he was behind her, her feet screamed in pain when she sent brain waves for them to run faster as she saw that he was just two arm lengths away.

Lucy became annoyed at his antics as she passed another block, "How many red hoods do you have anyway?"

"Apparently not enough for you to notice me before I notice you." The hooded man laughed and Lucy could just see his face right now, most likely grinning the same way he did just days before. Though she didn't feel threatened by him, she continued to run. Truthfully, she feared him differently than she did the strange man who cast shadows over her, instead it was more of a fear of discovering the truth. Finding out exactly what was going on instead of the fear of dying. She felt her body burn, most likely from the excess heat he was giving off. Her heart thumped faster with every step she took down the wet sidewalk. "No wonder everyone's so interested in you, aren't you tired yet?" Lucy felt her eyes glaze over as she ran, in fact, if it wasn't already obvious, she was completely tired, like she could just collapse onto the concrete and not even care if he had caught her in the process, but still, her legs propelled her forward. Not quite ready to face the music yet.

She prepared herself to turn the corner onto her street, Pegasus Drive, her sanctuary calling to her from just around five blocks away after she would turn. However, after the turn, she didn't expect what she should've have seen coming. The air chilled around her as she flopped onto the ground, exhausted and giving up. The hooded man slowed his pace, "What happened? It was getting interesting." He looked around the corner to find a certain black haired man, standing with one hand in his pant pocket and the other hand holding an umbrella above himself. "Ah, Gray." The hooded man looked down at Lucy, who breathed heavily as the rain pushed her hair into her eyes. "What are you doing here? Ruining everything as always."

The black haired man grunted at the hooded man's tone, "And you're the not one who freaked out and started chasing her right?" He moved his arm holding the umbrella above Lucy's head, causing himself to get wet as he shielded her from the rain. "C'mon Natsu, she's exhausted, unbelievable that she could still run in this condition."

The hooded man leaned forward, trying to take a looked at her head that was drooped over, "So she's one of us then?"

Lucy tried to lift her head up, her eardrums pulsing as her body experience both hot and cold at the same time, a seemingly impossible feeling. The black haired man opened his mouth to say one more thing, "Not yet she's not." Her eyes fluttered in an effort to stay open as she stared at the faces of the two of them, red hood grinning and black hair sighing, before she shut them for a well deserved rest.

* * *

**Just to clarify, in this chapter I used the named 'Jellal' instead of 'Gerard' because that's what his name is listed as on fanfiction. **

**Thank you for reading chapter two and if you enjoyed it, or even if it didn't **_**completely make your heart pound**_

**(yay for over exaggeration!)**

**Please do review. **


	3. Our Us We

**After many long and agonizing days of typing and retyping this chapter (which all in all was just not coming out the way I wanted it to) I finally sat down for the weekend and told myself I would get it done! (Definitely one of the longest things I have ever typed in my life!)**

**I organized my thoughts and MAGIC HAPPENED! You get the pun? Magic. I just made myself laugh. **

* * *

_**Chapter 3**__**: Our. Us. We.**_

_**Location Unknown **_

_**Sometime around the Late Afternoon of August 17th **_

Lucy's eyes fluttered open. She felt her head pounding, a headache coming on. She lifted her head, which felt like it weighed a ton, off of the hard surface she seemed to have it lying on. She tried to readjust her eyes, not sure exactly where she was. She attempted to get up, though her legs failed her, as they refused to get up from their sitting position. She felt her body ache along with her head, as if the impact of her race for her life was just now hitting her all at once. The only motion she could make was making her arms come up from their slumped over position and a slight turn of the head. She squinted and her eyes slowly became less foggy as she was now able to see shapes and colors. It seemed to be somewhere she had been before, but it was still uncertain exactly where this place was. She used the remaining strength in her arms to lift up the rest of her body, stumbling slightly when she realized that she had been sitting down in a wooden chair. She almost fell backwards when she was stopped mid-fall, she felt like slumping onto the ground, but knew that she shouldn't show her pain unless she was on the brink of dying; though this was close to it. She stood herself up, only now realizing the reason she hadn't fallen. She turned her head to the person who had gripped her forearm and pulled her up moments before, though she didn't really need to see them. The familiar heat she felt already told her who it was, "Red Hoodie?"

She was placed back into the chair she had just used all of her strength to get out of, making her huff in anger at the pink haired man. He waved an open palm in front of her face, making her feel like breaking out into a sweat, "Can you even see right? I mean," He sat down next to her, kicking up his legs to make himself comfortable, "though it's awesome of you to be able to run for so long, doing it until your eyes look like they roll to the back of your head isn't." Lucy sensed a hint of sympathy in his voice and though she didn't know him that well, or at all really, it was weird for him to be showing it. He stood up from the chair and looked around the place, "If you ever feel up for a run," He pointed his thumb towards his chest, boasting, "Then just come here again and ask for me." Lucy narrowed her eyes, not really sure where 'here' was didn't help either.

A familiar dinging noise resonated through her ears, making her lean towards the noise to get a better listen to the sound. She moved her eyes to the man in front of her, who made no motion towards the noise, as if it happened often. Her body got a kick of adrenaline when he looked back at her, his eyes still as he stared. Lucy urged for her body to move, but at this point, it was not at all interested in trying another futile attempt at standing. She opened her mouth, a small whisper coming out, "Where am I?"

The man narrowed his eyes, as if her question was far from what he expected her to say. He looked up above himself, to what Lucy figured must have been the ceiling, "Where are you?" He shrugged and walked too far away for Lucy to see where he had gone with her currently impaired vision. Either way, he didn't answer her question, so it looked like she wasn't going to find out anytime soon. She felt her body relax, just being around him seemed to make her nervous. She heard a series of steps come closer, what seemed like two people, to her position. She heard his voice again, that and a strange tingling sensation on the back of her neck that made her want to yelp for help. "She has this weird look on her face."

"The master told you to watch her. _You_. Stop asking me for help."

"I didn't ask you for help! I told you she looked weird and you started following me to her."

"Well that's because." Lucy managed to finally remember whose voice she was hearing. The voice of the man who served her. The black haired man who had saved her from the shadow accountant. She didn't understand why his voice faltered, but she didn't like the tense feeling she was getting. "Hey, why's she sweating? Didn't the master tell you to tone down on the body heat?" Lucy felt a cold chill rush up and push her bangs to the side to get at her forehead. Her arms rose up in protest as she felt the coldness push against her, as if she just dived into the Antarctic Ocean, she pushed back from the direction of the chill, feeling cloth and someone's body on her palms as she did. Her body slammed against a wooden floor.

"You say to tone down my heat and you put your icy, cold-blooded hands on her."

"I just wasn't careful alright?" Lucy moved her eyes as what seemed like something red helped her come to her feet. The heat she had felt from before seemed to have tone down as now she felt lukewarm from the touch. She stumbled, the palm of her hand held her up as she used the table as support. Her eyes were less blurry now, making her surroundings become a bit clearer. She turned her head to her right, straining to see outside of what seemed like a window. "I need to get back to the kitchen." Lucy turned to the black haired man, being able to slowly see each of his facial features. She squinted as they reached a large blue object that seemed to be covering his front side. Her eyes widened when she noticed a white tail of something on it.

Lucy looked around herself, "This is…Sushi Tails." Her nose agreed as it instantly recognized the vanilla smell that floated through the place. She turned herself to her right, the pink and red that the man stood dressed in was now blurring out as her vision returned to normal. "_Another_ red hoodie?" She raised her eyebrow at the man.

The man laughed in what seemed like excitement. "You really like to pick fights don't you?" The smile that came from his face made her mouth twitch, as if trying to reciprocate the action, something that Lucy didn't understand. Trying to smile back at the person who chased you for twenty some-odd blocks and then still didn't look tired didn't seem reasonable. Yet even so, she had the urge to smile back at him. She fought it as she sat back down in the chair to regain her strength. She looked up at the black haired man, who seemed surprised that she did.

Lucy looked back down at the table then up at the pink haired man to her right, "So are you going to tell me what's going on or should we talk over sushi?" She had given up. There was no way to get out of this situation now, and running away from the place that she always found herself coming back to meant that she would still have to deal with the reality of the situation later. So, she had given up. Given up on her office life, the life she had pursued ever since she left home. The quiet days were ending and now was not the time to deny that they were. The black haired man looked at her questionably, not expecting her to say what she did, which Lucy took great pride in, after all of his know-it-all antics. The pink haired man simply nodded and moved to her left, brushing past the black haired man and sitting to her left.

The black haired man scowled at his action and instead of sitting, took a standing position at the head of the table, "One large sushi plate with low wasabi and a cup of fire." Lucy flinched at the last of the order, not sure she wanted to have a 'cup of fire' for whatever meal she was having at the moment. The pink haired man smiled in satisfaction at the sound of the order, making Lucy question her hearing. The black haired man pivoted, but not too soon to mouth a few words to Lucy, who, once more, knew not how to read lips. Thus, stared at him dumbfounded until he disappeared into what would be the kitchen of the restaurant. She turned back to her left, finding a pair of deep olive eyes looking her over, she quickly looked away.

"Tell you what's going on? That's what we'd like to know." She flinched, not understanding the sudden hostility in his voice, "You know how many times I've gotten my ass kicked because of you now? It's not like leaving a bull creature in the subway train is such a big deal, but then the news had to go and be all over-dramatic about it. 'Strange creature invades city. Massive Damage to train schedules. People have broken out into riots!' So Scary." The last part of his sentence was sarcastic, and had drained down into a mumble by the time he got to it, after he himself realized that there was no reason to complain about the past. Lucy felt slightly bad that she ran away the first time now, seeing as how leaving him to deal with a mess that was caused by _her _seemed way over 'unfair.' "All we know is that they're after you. Probably to get you to move over to _their_ side, though the shadow thing that Gray told me about is what makes me angry." Lucy felt heat on the left side of her body, it heated up because of the air conditioning or something, is what Lucy tried to convince herself of ever since she first had contact with him. Though, at this point, there was no reason to lie to herself any longer. He was giving off heat, pouring out warmth from his pours and right now, it was much too hot for her to handle. "Thinking that they can try to hurt _you_, hurt _anyone_ while we're here, no forgiveness can be given."

"Forgiveness or not, there's nothing we can really do about it. All we can do is go on jobs for the master and do them well. It's the only way to manage the whole thing." Lucy looked to the black haired man, who had returned from the back of the restaurant, carrying one familiar large sushi plate and a cup of reddish-orange moving liquid. She saw Red hoodie smile at the sight of the cup, which most likely meant that it was initially for him, much to her relief. Lucy stared down at the sushi plate, not really hungry for raw fish at the moment. She bit her lip as she watched black hair sit down across from herself at the table. He shoved his hands into his pockets as he sat in a slumped over position. He raised an eyebrow after watching Lucy for a moment, "Not hungry?"

Lucy looked up at him, answering stoictically, "Yes."

The black haired man's eyes lingered on her frame a bit longer before they looked down to the sushi plate that separated him from her, "You're gonna regret it." He shrugged, pulling one of his hands from his pocket to pick up the chopsticks near her. He picked up a seaweed roll and ate it, a satisfied look spreading across his face.

Lucy turned to Red Hoodie, who was drinking enthusiastically, the liquid inside the cup like Jell-O as it slipped down his throat. Neither of the men looked like they had any intention to talk at the moment, both seemingly distracted by their own hunger and thirst. She sighed, hanging her head low as she tried to gather her thoughts. She nodded at her conclusion as she lifted both of her hands to the table from her knees, "I've already come to terms about the weird things around me. It wouldn't be right if you both still refuse to speak to me about what's going on." The Black Haired Man, rubbed the back of his head as if he was not sure how to start. The motion to her left moved her attention to Red Hoodie, who had moved his position in his seat so that he was facing towards her.

She was taken aback by the grin he gave her, "It's simple," he rose up his index finger, "They don't harm civilians if they don't have to. Only people who are different from the regular passerby, that's who they target. They probably thought you were one of _us_, that's why the master told us to protect you." Lucy opened her mouth, getting ready to speak and ask the question that she had been yearning to most likely the entire time. She was stopped by the black haired man, who spoke before she could start.

"It's raining out again." Lucy looked back out toward the windows, it was pouring down, and only now had she noticed the sound; the sound which she didn't even hear when she had been focusing on the two men beside her. For whatever reason, being beside them made everything else seem less important, as if they themselves were different from their surroundings and attracted her attention like a mouth to a flame. She felt on the verge of discovering exactly what 'us' meant, though not quite yet. "Go ahead and take her home. She is your responsibility after all." Lucy pursed her lips at the last sentence, not sure she felt okay being treated like a child that had to be taken care of.

The looks on their faces seemed to not reveal anything, just a couple of normal men. It seemed as though they weren't going to tell her any more than this. So despite her better judgment, she decided to trust these two, who she had had vague encounters with only recently. She would trust them. For the time being.

_**Pegasus Drive**_

_**Jewels' Apartment Complex**_

_**Apartment 4**_

_**Evening of August 17th **_

She fumbled her pockets for her keys, having an inside panic attack when she realized that they weren't inside of her front pocket, nor were they hanging from the key ring attached to her belt. She turned back to the person who had taken a position on the railing of the stairs, yawning widely as they waited. She wasn't sure how he would react to it, but right now wasn't the time to worry about that. "I can't find my keys." He stopped mid yawn, closing his mouth seriously, a sure sign he heard her. He stood up from the railing he was leaning on, making his way over to her apartment door. He leaned over, examining the lock for a moment then returned to his standing position, lifting up his leg at an angle before sending it slamming into the door. Lucy jumped back at his action, still not sure what quite happened; either way however, her door was now open. She grumbled as she fought to find the appropriate words to say for this moment, "You could have kicked my door down." She couldn't put forth any real emotion in her tone, seeing as how the surprise was still stuck on her face. The word 'could have,' was exactly the correct term, the door, despite being kicked with such force, looked as though it was opened normally, no damage done to the hinges in the least.

Red Hoodie lifted up his leg, positioning it as if he was about to kick again, "It's all about the angle. Angle." He slowly kicked his leg forward, as if showing her how easy it was if she just practiced it. Lucy decided to ignore the criminal activity that she had just witnessed and proceeded into her apartment, all of her stress seemingly flowing out of her as she took a well-deserved seat onto her bed. The door shut behind the man in the hood as he looked around her apartment with interest. "How old are you again?" Lucy snapped her head towards him at his comment, her hair, which had been so poorly treated over the past few days, went wild in front of her face. Not caring what she looked like in front of this person was an understatement, she blew air from her mouth, making most of the hair that had poured in front of her face flip back. "The suit you wore that day on the train made me think you were a strict office lady. No real taste at all, a bland looking apartment would have suited you best." He nodded to himself in agreement, "Yep yep." He turned his head back to Lucy, who had no energy to retort to him and was squinting her eyes in an attempt to stay awake, "Though," she heard a light laugh come from his mouth, "even though it's not what I expected, it suits you better than I thought it would."

Lucy laughed heartily, "19." The silence she heard after she had spoken meant that he was most likely dumbfounded at her real age. She slumped over, lying on her bed more comfortably now. "My last job added ten years to my appearance, I swear." She breathed out lightly as she closed her eyes. Her eyes snapped open as she heard a set of footsteps walking around her apartment. She sat up quickly, "Why are you still here?"

The footsteps stopped, "Don't girls usually take a shower after running in the rain the day before?" Lucy took offense to the tone he gave her. She didn't feel like debating with him about her level of girliness. She opened her mouth, preparing to retort when she was stopped by a sudden rush of footsteps toward the door. He opened it, "I was just making sure that I got your scent. See ya soon." He lifted his arm up, waving goodbye before shutting the door behind himself.

Lucy raised an eyebrow, making sure to make her way over to the door and lock it before returning to the middle of her apartment, she sniffed herself as she took a left, heading towards her bathroom door, "What does he mean by scent? Do I smell or something?" She contemplated it a bit longer, "What is he? A dog?"

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Five, Room C**_

_**Morning of August 18th **_

Lucy shifted nervously as she stood in front of room C, not quite sure how to enter after missing a full day of work, which wasn't necessarily a good thing to do when you haven't even completed a week of work yet. She tugged at her loose navy blue and white striped sweater, her blue skinny jeans making her seem even more enclosed than usual, a tip that she shouldn't wear them for a while after today. She readjusted her loose low ponytail and navy blue ribbon that hung from her short sleeve white collar shirt for the umpth-teenth time that day. Not only had she gotten a dirty look from the woman in the lobby, who, as if her original hatred wasn't enough, was now given another reason to become immensely agitated with Lucy, but she was also given a scowl from the man from Floor two, Room D who she had only had one encounter with. She did a little bounce back and forth on her heels, as if that would give her more confidence to enter. She reached for the door handle, not expecting it to slip out of her grasp as the door opened up. Her confidence fell. She wasn't going to open the door; she was just psyching herself up, so that it opened before she was ready made her docile to the very person who opened it.

Elfman towered over her, looking down at her with his judging glare. Lucy, expecting an insult, braced herself for impact. She didn't feel any particular malice from him so she looked from the corner of her wincing eye, to find him in the process of brushing past her, making his way to the elevator, one box under each of his muscular arms. Lucy shuddered at the thought of how much they must have weighed. She shuffled into the room, finding her female co-worker shuffling though papers. "Oh Lucy! Welcome back! How are you feeling?"

Lucy furrowed her eyebrow, not sure how to answer the question. She paused for a moment before answering, "Fine."

Levi picked up the folders that she had been organizing, placing them into a box marked 'Elfman's Weight.' She clapped her hands together, getting off whatever invisible dust that must have been on them. "Your boyfriend called the office yesterday to say you were exhausted and stuck in bed. Glad to see you're feeling better now." Lucy scratched the back of her head; the word 'boyfriend' took a moment to register in her mind. Her eyes widened as it all seemed to click. "He said he would be coming to drop off your bag later, something about leaving it at his work place or something?" Lucy walked over to her desk, not sitting down quite yet. If the office received a call from a man, than it could have been only one of two people, definitely. Left her bag at his workplace? That narrowed it down to only one. It seemed as though the black haired man was going to come to deliver her bag, no wonder she couldn't find her keys the day before. She breathed out, relieved that her bag had gone to the more responsible one of the two strangers. "And Guess what!" Lucy looked up towards Levi, who was grinning, obviously happy about something, "Elfman, after hearing you got sick yesterday, said that for the rest of the week he was going to do your heavy work. Lucky Lucy! What I wouldn't kill for that. Oh! 'Lucky Lucy.' I like the sound of that." Levi continued to smile to herself as she reached down and grabbed the lone folder on her desk, "Deliver this to the executive offices. Top Floor, same office as two days ago. Lunch is on Elfman today! You really should be sick more often." Lucy, not feeling all that great about the last sentence, decided that it was most likely a joke. Though knowing Levi, it was her harsh way of kindness. Lucy smiled at Levi, who was now quietly singing about steaks and mashed potatoes. She felt a skip in her step just wanting to come out as she lightly carried her under one pound of weight in her hand. "Lucky Lucy! Don't think this boyfriend matter is over yet! You best be thinking of how you're going to explain all the juicy details to me." Lucy laughed as she made her way over to the elevator, in a much lighter mood than before.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Top Floor, Executive Offices**_

_**Morning of August 18th**_

Lucy looked around, once more; the secretary in charge of the desk in front of the President's office was nowhere to be found. Lucy shook her head, remembering the woman from before who was caught in the act of taking an unapproved break. She yawned widely, twisting the end of her low ponytail around her finger as she waited. She couldn't very well just leave the delivery there because if it got lost, then it would be her head to be offed with. "Lucy Heartfilia?" Lucy had zoned out, so when she heard the familiar voice, she snapped back into reality. The red haired beauty had made her appearance again, this time in much more informal clothes than Lucy had last seen her in. A pair of loose long tan dress pants, brown high heels and a long sleeve white collar shirt. "Another delivery from the fifth floor for the President?" Erza looked around, a dissatisfied look spreading across her face, "Not here again then?" Erza stepped behind the desk, sighing that she had to do the job of someone else again. Lucy pushed the folder across the counter of the desk, towards her. She pulled it off of the surface of the desk, examining its contents before sliding it into a basket marked, 'inbox.' Lucy watched as Erza logged onto the computer at the desk, clicking various folders on it with the mouse. Erza glanced up at Lucy, "What do you say to getting lunch together today?"

Lucy felt shocked that such an elite looking woman had requested for her company at lunch. She thought about it for a moment before remembering, "Oh, well, Elfman is treating room C to lunch today. But it would be great if you came too." Lucy leaned onto the counter of the desk, resting her elbows on it as she grinned at the thought of having both of her new found friends, Levi and Erza, eating lunch together with her. Erza shifted her eyes away from Lucy, biting her lip in frustration.

She stood up from the high chair at the desk, "Maybe another time then. It's best for you to become acquainted with your room members after all." Lucy, who felt that this kind of reaction was weird coming from the always confident Erza, stood puzzled, not sure what to say. It seemed as though she was holding back, like something was stopping her from eating with Elfman. After all, having lunch with Lucy herself, alone, is what she had asked about, but when Elfman was mentioned, she became docile, refusing the offer to eat together. Lucy felt let down, but didn't ask Erza about why she didn't want to. It would be almost rude to, is what she felt. Though something deep in her urged her to ask, something she couldn't explain. "Anyways," Lucy was drawn out of thought at Erza's interjection, "it looks as though I need to have a good heart to heart with the secretary." Lucy chuckled softly, her previous thoughts leaving her mind just as quickly as they had entered.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Lobby Floor**_

_**Early Afternoon of August 18th**_

Lucy laughed at Levi, who was telling her about the time she got her hair stuck in the coffee machine at her last job as a teacher's assistant. Elfman followed them close behind, a rather less harsh look on his face as he listened to Levi's story, which he looked as though he had listened to more than just this one time. Lunch break started at twelve forty-five, ending in an hour, which both made Lucy almost cry tears of joy and shout in happiness at the same time. They decided to make a trip down to the family restaurant that was just a three minute walk away. "The teacher yelled at me that the coffee wasn't black enough so I made _him_ black enough, you know, to even things out for him." She did a hand motion in which she lifted the imaginary coffee and poured it onto someone. "After all of that. I was fired, surprise surprise right? I mean pouring steaming hot coffee on someone isn't all that bad right?" Lucy continued to smile as they continued to close in on the entrance of the building. She slowed her walk forward when she noticed that both Elfman and Levi had stopped. She turned to see Levi getting a bit nervous as she avoided looking forward. Elfman continued to look forward, though his face was less expressionless than usual.

"Hey, I brought back your precious computer." Lucy froze in her place, not exactly wanting to turn back to the voice that had called out to her. "You listening?" She peaked out of the corner of her eye, to witness exactly what she had feared would happen, it turns out her bag was not in the possession of the more responsible one at all, but instead, in the hands of a certain pink haired young man. She turned to see him staring at her, waiting for a response. He rubbed his stomach, which most likely was empty, since it was lunch at the current moment for people in the city. Levi and Elfman walked forward, walking around Lucy as they continued to the door.

"We'll wait outside while you talk to your boyfriend Lucy." Elfman gave a nod as he and Levi exited the building in a rather swift manner. Lucy stood, confused and now stuck _alone_ with the one person who made _feeling alone_ impossible.

"Why did they?"

Lucy was interrupted by Red Hoodie who urged toward her her bag, "It's because they aren't allowed to make contact with us. For now anyway." There was the word 'us' again, never ceasing to send Lucy's head into a mix every time it was used. Lucy opened her mouth, beginning to speak, only to be interrupted once more, "Gray couldn't make it, lunch time is busy and the master kept him back, so he sent me. And what's that about 'boyfriend' anyway?" Lucy hung the bag on her shoulder, feeling the familiar weight of her computer inside made a wave of relief rush over her. "Well, I've got to get going." He pivoted, getting ready to leave Lucy when he made one look over her before he did, "19? I believe it." He laughed as Lucy huffed in anger that he had still doubted her. He raised his hand the way he had done the evening before, saying one last thing before exiting, not to be seen again until later that nerve wracking evening, "Make sure you don't leave work until we come pick you up. Not that I mind chasing you again."

He laughed, the warmth that erupted when he showed up slowly diminished as he went out of view.

And once again, Lucy was left with more questions than answers.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Front of the Building**_

_**Evening of August 18th**_

Lucy looked up and down the street, looking for the familiar streak of pink to come into view. The rain was unexpected, but luckily, in the bag that had been returned to her that afternoon, was her clear, retractable umbrella. It seemed as though she was living up to the nickname Levi had given her, 'Lucky Lucy,' with a little help of course. The light drizzle seemed as though it would go away, but it had persisted since the afternoon after her lunch break. Elfman and Levi acted as usual, not at all giving hints as to why they acted so strangely before. And neither of them even mentioned the man in the red hoodie, even though Levi had asked about her 'boyfriend' before, she didn't seem the least bit interested now. Lucy sighed, still sad that Erza had not joined her for lunch, another odd occurrence to add to today's list. She hummed as she waited, another taxi passed by, this time, it stopped, completely different from the thirteen some odd times they had passed her by before. It stopped slightly to her left, a blue haired man grinned as he leaned over it, his forearm on the rim of the door. His suit was soaking wet, meaning he was most likely also an employee of Sieg. Rain as well. He motioned her towards the empty taxi cab. "Go on in."

Lucy took a step forward, and after being tired of waiting for Red Hoodie to show up, the idea of a taxi taking her home made her give in to temptation. It would be her first taxi ride since coming to the city and that in itself made her excited. She nodded to herself, there was no reason not to take the taxi, it was practically begging her to take it. She walked forward with confidence now, resting her hand onto the rim of the open car door. The blue haired man's face came into view as the mist from the rain lifted a bit. An odd black tattoo spread onto the right side of his face, making a shiver run down her spine. "Are you sure? You don't have an umbrella and I'm waiting for someone anyway."

The man smiled, his eyes tempting her even more, "It's alright, I'm already wet, no need for you to get your shoes soaked through because of someone who blew you off in the first place right?" Lucy, not sure about the situation, though slightly agreeing with his logic, looked down at her umbrella, passing it over to him as she sat down inside the taxi cab.

"Take it. Catching a cold over a light rain isn't the most cool sounding of excuses." Lucy smiled at the stranger, who reciprocated the action. She flinched when she saw the smile on his face, he shut the door of the cab before she could get her thoughts straight.

"Where to?"

Lucy shook her head, "Oh, um, Pegasus Drive please."

The taxi took off, down the road, leaving the man and Lucy's umbrella at the sidewalk.

There was something about that man, the way he smiled, made her want to yelp, even run away in fear. This familiar feeling that was similar to what she felt on the train that night, or the day the shadow accountant visited. Something bad was going to happen, she felt it in her gut. She breathed in and out, twirling the end of her ponytail to calm herself. The heater of the taxi made her soon relax, her fear slightly less as she felt safe in a taxi cab that she shouldn't have even gotten on.

_**Some five some odd minutes away from "Sushi Tails"**_

_**Evening of August 18th**_

The taxi came to a stop on the side of a street that looked like Lullaby Boulevard. Lucy opened the door of the taxi, looking around to see through the fog, trying to make sure if this really was where she thought it was. The taxi cab sped up as soon as she got both of her legs outside of it, driving down the road much faster than she would have ever been able to catch. She huffed angrily, stomping her feet when she realized that she had once more lost her bag. She squatted on the side of the street, people passing by paid no attention to her small hissy fit. She stood up, her clothes getting wet quickly. She almost regretted giving her umbrella to the blue haired man.

"Hey!" The word was dragged out, into a long yell coming from behind Lucy. She turned to see Red Hoodie, running so quickly towards her down the road that his pink hair had flung back. His footsteps were heavy as he made he was towards her, a look of desperation on his face as his long strides caused Lucy to feel the excess heat he was giving off, most likely due to his eagerness to get to her. "Run!" She froze at the word, the word that she had heard so frequently lately. Run. She had to run. But from what? She noticed that his eyes were not looking at her, yet looking at something beyond her, behind her. She felt the presence that she would rather not feel at all. She wanted to close her senses, close her mind off to it all and run. She insisted her legs to push forward, running like a maniac to reach him. When she was within arm's length of him, she stretched out her hand. He grasped it, yanking her behind him fiercely. Only then did she get a view of what was behind her.

A man of six feet tall, a dark solemn look on his face as he sneered at Lucy. All other passersby seemed to have disappeared from the area, not such a good sign. She clutched at Red Hoodie's shoulder. The man rushed forward, quicker than Lucy could have imagined. His office clothes made him look like just a regular man in his middle thirties. But there was definitely no man of thirty who could run like that. Lucy felt Red Hoodie shrug her off as he now launched forward, toward the man. She felt her knees grow weak as her support had left her. She was scared, mortally scared.

Lucy stared at his frame as the two men collided, flames bursting out around his legs as he kicked the man in the face. He pulled back for a punch, releasing it when the flame reached its brightest in Lucy's eyes. But he missed, the dark man had ducked, and was now racing towards Lucy, who at the moment couldn't feel more pathetic at the fact that she couldn't shoot fire from her hands. She dodged to the left, colliding onto the wet sidewalk as the man swung at her. He grinned at the stubbornness she showed, about to deliver a swift kick when a hand shot in front of his face, gripping it as it burst into flames. Red Hoodie stood over Lucy; it seemed as though he was saving her life a lot lately. She let out a sigh of relief as the dark man stumbled backwards, his face red and peeling from the burn inflicted onto him. She wouldn't want to be on Red Hoodie's bad side. He went forward, fists blazing as he reared up another one of his punches, at a closer range than before.

It seemed as though it would end soon, that this would be the last swing. Far from it. Red Hoodie stopped his fist and turned back to Lucy, who was picking herself up from the ground, his face full of excitement, "Take care of that would you?" Lucy's eyes widened as she directed herself to the thing that stood behind her. The same bull monster from the day of the train, almost a splitting image of it, except this one was a deep red, and it's horns were longer and even more monstrous on the side of its face. Lucy felt her adrenaline pumping as it stared her down, kicking it's hooves at the ground, revving up, ready to pierce her straight through. It ran forward, it's eyes even more deadly looking than the one from nights before. If the other one was the son, than this was definitely the angry father. She ducked as it swung it's horns at her. The monster from before was restricted in the train car, but this one, had the whole street to spread its legs on. It wasn't going to go down as easily as the last one.

Lucy had no time to pay attention to what Red Hoodie was doing anymore, he obviously had his hands full, or at least half full, and was not even making a move to help her. The bull came at her again, this time with its nose titled down toward the concrete. If now wasn't the time to make a move and no longer pretend to be an office lady, then it would never be. She put her hand forward, pushing herself up once the bull's nose was under it, giving herself a good jump over it, and earning her a pretty bad landing onto the sidewalk. He knees scraped against the concrete, not enough to break skin, though enough to have her skin turn bruised and red. The bull itself didn't fair out so well either. Her sudden leap of faith over its body made it disoriented, making its attempt to get at her with its horns futile as it twisted and slipped off of its feet, landing onto the ground.

It got up again, this time Lucy could've sworn two things happened. One, it definitely had a redder face now than before and two, Red Hoodie was laughing at her little stunt with much satisfaction. She glanced back at him, who was now not only facing one, but three men. It seemed as though he was having a good time of it as well. She huffed as she stood back up, her knees shaking and her arms tensing. The bull charged again, and Lucy, now confident she could jump over it, got ready for it. However, the monster wasn't going to make it that easy. It reared up its head before it got to her, making anything but a dodge impossible, and even that seemed unlikely. Her eyes shook as time seemed to pass in slow motion as it came closer. She breathed out.

Out of all the absurd things she had to deal with lately. This had to be one of the most absurd. Stuck with some hot head that actually enjoyed fighting along with a countless number of bulls that wanted her dead was the epitome of absurdity. She did a light flick of her hair back, to get it out of her eyes. She wouldn't die here. She refused to die here. Like this, in such a surreal way. She readied herself for another jump, this time not letting her legs give out on her. As soon as the bull reared its head down to get at her, she used its body one more time to get around it. This time determined to leap and score a perfect landing.

Lucy stuck the landing alright, much to her ankles' displeasure. She spun around grabbing onto the bull's tail before it could react. She pulled as hard as she could, which made it stumble over one more time. She picked herself up, not sure what to do now, though not given enough time to think. The bull sent its hind legs back, kicking her and flinging her backwards, making her back slam into a light post. There was no way her bones weren't broken. Her body began to fail on her with the impact. She looked over to Red Hoodie, who was finishing off the last of the three men he was fighting. The bull stood up again, even angrier that it got tricked a second time. It came at her again, the disgusting stench overwhelmed her senses as she struggled to stand again.

A warm hand lifted her up easily and then a body glided in front of hers. Red Hoodie was back in action, though what he could do against this monster when he could barely finish off the one of the train before, was questionable. Lucy saw his breathe grow heavy as he stood in front of her, it was sweat, not rain that trickled down his face. He lifted his arms up, his flame flickering in the rain, "Don't underestimate me." The bull came again.

Lucy panicked. She grabbed him, pulling him away from the front of her. It was after her, he had nothing to do with it. Everyone was after her. She guarded, Red Hoodie reaching forward to cover her. A bright light appeared once again. Followed by the sound of a cow and a large slicing sound. Lucy heard a light jingle of a bell as the light diminished, a figure standing on its hind legs, looking down at her body before disappearing. Red Hoodie stood in front of her, where the figure stood only moments ago. "There you go again, underestimating me. I told you to wait in front of the building, you didn't. And I tell you not to underestimate me, you do." She heard a laugh come from him as he looked at the damage they had caused this time. "Another damn bull? Are they mass producing or something?" Lucy stood up, smoothing her bangs back and straightening herself as much as she could before speaking.

Her hair band was at her hairs' ends, ceasing to be functional anymore. The sweater tattered and worn out and the jeans scraped. Holes and rips abound. She bit her lip, "What was that just now?"

Red Hoodie, who was inspecting the cut and scarred bull, turned to her from his squatting position, "That light you mean? No clue. Whatever it was though, glad to see its on our side."

"Our?"

Red Hoodie stood up, his eyes searching for the kind of emotion that she had on her face, "That's right. Our. Us. We."

"Who is 'us'? Explain everything to me."

Red Hoodie's mouth eased into a grin, a proud grin that seemed confident and zealous, "Then should we go home?" He put both his hands behind his head, "_Home to Fairy Tail?_"

* * *

_**Thanks to all of you who read the first two chapters and commented, you can't imagine the amount of 'epic' singing I got from that. **_

_**I supposed this chapter marks the end of the introduction (I know! Long intro right?).**_

_**Review and tell me what you think. **_


	4. Better yet, Join me

**It's been far too long. I really enjoy this story and so I keep trying to make it come out exactly how I want it to. I would delete 1000 words after typing it because it wouldn't come out right. I can't tell you how long it took me to finally decide what I wanted to do. So after all of that! Here it is! **

* * *

_**Evening of August 18th**_

She looked around at the familiar surroundings. It was late and the crescent moon looked like it was smiling down upon her. She felt her feet wobble as she struggled to continue down the sidewalk, still moving by sheer will. The way he so willingly said he would reveal the truth to her made her uncertain. She focused her eyes onto his figure in front of her, still adorning his signature red hoodie, the heat he gave off right now seem unrestricted. Wavering like an unsure flame. He must have been feeling the same way she had, like his world was about to be invaded by something unknown. She could tell by the way he walked that he didn't feel threatened by his surroundings. Which meant she wouldn't have to worry about anything popping out of nowhere again like before. At least being with him had its plus sides. He suddenly stopped, making her heart almost burst out of its chest. She looked around quizzically, her hair flipping back and forth as she forced her hazy eyes to focus. He turned to her, not sure why she was freaking out, "What?" He asked as if she was the one who was acting weird by stopping. She parted her mouth to retort but decided it wasn't worth it. She steadied her breath. Nothing was coming to get her. For the moment anyway.

He looked up towards the building they now stood in front of. Lucy stared at his face, studying his expression, before following his eyes up to where they were looking. She felt like she had just had another punch to the face. Her eyes didn't blink as she continued to stare at the building, "You're kidding." Her voice came out like a whisper. He turned to her and laughed.

"Why else do you think you kept coming here?" He walked in the front door and a low ding rang through the air. The vanilla extract scent that flowed out of the door as it closed behind him awakened her to the reality of the situation. A blue sign of a fish's tail hung in front of the doorway. The building she was standing in front of only made even more questions awaken in her mind. She clenched her fists and looked down at her feet, laughing quietly at herself.

"In front of my face this entire time and I didn't even notice."

_**Fairy Boulevard**_

_**Sushi Tails**_

_**Evening of August 18th**_

She stared at the table, not exactly sure what she was supposed to be waiting for. Her whole body ached and she wasn't that interested in moving around anymore. So whatever it was that was going to blow her mind right now, she prayed that it wouldn't do it to her in a way that makes her have to stand up. She looked around, finding a lot more people than usual at the bar drinking. It wasn't so much weird as it was comfortable. The air in the room was warm and welcoming and it made Lucy drowsy. It was like she was at home, lying on her bed, after a long day at work. She felt a little bit better than she did before as she listened to the laughter that echoed from the men at the bar. She closed her eyes and slowly swung her feet back and forth. Her muscles relaxed and she felt at ease. She opened her eyes slowly, jumping back when a figure suddenly appeared in her view. Her chair tipped back, making her arms go flailing for something to grab onto. She reached out to the figures forearms and succeeded in grabbing him a little below the elbow. He gripped onto her, trying to help, but only made it worse. The shivers that ran through Lucy's spin made her instinctively let go. She could feel his cold breath on her as he grabbed the back of the chair in a quick attempt to save her. He raised it back up to its original position and looked at her a bit perturbed afterwards. She could already see what he was thinking. He looked down at his hands and shoved them into his pockets. "Sorry 'bout that." Lucy shook her head, not sure how to make the situation less awkward. He breathed out, as if he had people avoid him because of this before, "I see Natsu brought you here."

Lucy ignored his statement, "It's just been a long day." He furrowed his black eyebrows at her, not sure what she was saying. He cracked a small smile when he realized she was more worried about his insecurities about his cold aura instead of her current situation. She frowned when she realized he was laughing at her. She moved her eyes away from him, "So his name's Natsu?" A loud noise came from behind the bar, followed by yelling and a few roars of laughter. Lucy, not really wanting to waste energy to investigate, didn't even look in the direction of the sound. She instead turned her attention to the Black Haired man standing in front of her, who was looking towards the bar with interest. Just as she had noticed before, he stood out from his surroundings. Him and red hoodie, Natsu. Before, she had ignored it, dismissed it and moved on. After experiencing such a rush of adrenaline as she had earlier however, her eyes were picking up on it more and were refusing to not see it. It was weird that she found herself still comfortable, even with him there.

"Hey." Lucy turned at the call, recognizing the voice almost immediately. When she looked to the left, she found Natsu just within arms' length. He had shed his red hoodie, leaving his arms bare. Lucy started at his hands as he spoke; in wonderment at how he produced the flames she had seen earlier. "We're all out of cod." The black haired man grunted in frustration.

"Guess that message was for me then," he walked away from the table, towards the kitchen entry way near the bar of the restaurant, completely ignoring Lucy now. She wasn't sure how to react to that, or the way fish was more important than why she was being stalked each day. Lucy opened her mouth to say the name of the pink haired man who was sitting down next to her now, then stopped herself. She bit her lip, wondering if it was weird if she all of a sudden said his name when he hasn't even told her yet, so she avoided it.

"Was that all? The answer to everything is fish?" The sarcastic way she said it made Natsu laugh. She wasn't really sure if that was a good sign or not. He yawned widely and then focused his attention to where she had wanted it to be.

"Magic." Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, sure the past few days have been full of rather curious things but, 'magic'? "That's what we mages of Fairy Tail use. You can also use magic. Not sure exactly how yet but it's being thought about. So, that makes you one of us." There was the 'us' word again, but it didn't make Lucy feel on edge this time. She was almost glad to hear that she was included in anything. She lifted her index finger and pointed to herself, about to utter the word, 'Magic' in a confused tone, before she was cut off. "So are you joining us?"

"Joining what?"

"Our guild."

"Guild?"

"For Mages."

"Right, the people that use magic." She touched her fist to her other hand's open palm, it was an a-ha moment. Natsu nodded, pleased that she was finally getting it. She looked at his hands that rested on the table, not a single scar or burn mark in place, "So your 'magic' is fire?"

A hand came down in front of Lucy's view, cutting her off from Natsu, whose eyes she was looking into intently before then. The hand placed a glass of water down in front of her, cubes of ice slowly resurfaced after the sudden motion. She looked up at the owner of the hand to find the black haired man. He moved his upper body towards her at an angle, "Water." Lucy looked back down at the glass; she could obviously tell it was water, but the way her smirked plus how he would always put emphasis on drinking water when she went to the restaurant made her a bit annoyed. She frowned at the glass, sure that this time she wouldn't drink it. He retracted himself from the table and slid on the leather jacket he had in his arms. He looked as if he was going out, most likely to get more cod fish. He glanced at Natsu before turning for the door. The way they looked at each other made them look like born rivals, contempt yet friendship hidden behind their eyes, "Remember we have a job to do tomorrow." The look on Natsu's face showed excitement, which meant more trouble tomorrow for Lucy, even if indirectly. The black haired man raised his eyebrow at Natsu, then his eyes widened as if he understood exactly what Natsu was saying with his facial expression, "It's not 'we' yet." Lucy parted her lips, wanting to object to the dangerous way he said that, but he was already to the door by the time she had processed the situation. She secretly wished she had stopped zoning out the entire time.

She stared at the ice cubes in the water that trembled silently, forgetting the previous discussion. Natsu slid his fingers around the cup. The ice cubes inside tumbled onto each other, becoming smaller and smaller until they were gone. A small puff of steam came from the opening of the class cup as the water's condensation disappeared. Lucy turned to Natsu, who grinned in satisfaction. She reached out for the cup, a warm sensation flowing through her body. She whispered, "Magic." She turned to Natsu, who yawned widely as if it was nothing. She bit her lip, "This magic guild, Fairy Tail. Filled with magic users. I'd…I'd like to," she stopped, if any time was the time to turn back, it was now, now was the time to run away, pretend none of it happened, but, but she liked it, the comfortable feeling, the smell of vanilla extract, even the shivers to think of the black haired man. If this was the life she was being dragged into, she didn't mind. In fact, she wanted it to drag her at full speed, until she found what she had come to the city for, a place where she belongs. "I'd like to join it," she turned to Natsu whose mouth was turning slowly into a grin as she continued her sentence, "Fairy Tail."

_**Pegasus Drive**_

_**Jewels' Apartment Complex**_

_**Apartment 4**_

_**Morning of August 19th**_

Lucy sat up in her bed, staring off into space, her bed head extremely bad this particular morning. After having to break in yet again into her apartment after losing her bag, Natsu had refused to leave until early that morning, not giving a reason why. It was difficult trying to get him to introduce himself, meaning that the entire night; she had to stop herself from saying his name, to avoid awkwardness. Even after all of that so called explaining that occurred last night at the restaurant, she still had no idea why they were after her, but at least she had found out about Natsu and the black haired man. "They fight the monsters and weird shadow guys using magic, calling them jobs they go on for the guild. A guild that is filled with other people, other than them, who use magic. They have a master of their guild, Fairy Tail. It's a start." She had at least pieced together that much. She raised an arm into the air to stretch, yawning as she did so. She reached for her phone when she realized that it was also in her bag, she wanted to throw a fit by tossing her sheets around a bit, but then decided against it, she was too tired to. Instead she slid out of bed, her feet searching for her slippers. When they found them, she had finally found the time on the DVD player beneath her television.

She leapt out of bed, realizing she woke up three hours later than she usually does. She rushed to her closet, grabbing the first thing she saw, her pinstripe skirt. She frowned when she realized she hadn't washed any of her jeans, which she had planned to do the night before, until the incident occurred. She had no choice, she quickly grabbed the short sleeved dress shirt from its hanger, and the ruffles on the buttons at the top were at least casual looking, even if it was by just a little bit. She grabbed underwear and her stockings from her dresser and rushed to the bathroom, frowning when she found out exactly how bad her hair looked. She tied it up, trying to tie up the bangs was futile though, they would just flip back down, and so she gave up. She slipped on her black high heels and tried to grab her bag, then realized once more it wasn't there. Her laptop, her keys, her drivers' license, her money, even her favorite lip gloss that smelled like strawberries were all gone. She dismissed the saddening thought from her mind and pumped herself up by giving a small boasting motion with her arms towards her apartment door. When she opened it, something slumped into her apartment. A small parcel that looked strangely familiar. She reached down for it, noticing that it was indeed her bag. She held back a gasp and ran out of her apartment, looking around as if Natsu would pop up out of nowhere. Why Natsu? If not him than who? She breathed a sigh of relief when she found her keys inside. She confidently locked her apartment door behind herself and walked downstairs, not giving the bag's sudden appearance another single thought.

_**Phantom Lane**_

_**Sieg. Rain Events Planning Company**_

_**Floor Five, Room C**_

_**Morning of August 19th**_

Lucy sat at her desk, not sure whether she was really supposed to be there or not. She looked around, not seeing even a single jacket hung on the jacket rack near the entrance of the room. She was late and no one was there to even scold her for being so. She frowned, uncomfortable with the silence. Being alone was what she was used to, but all of the sudden attention she found herself come into made her desire communication more than she used to. She breathed out and sunk onto her desk. Her cheek pushed up against her right eye as she looked out the window. A knock on the door made her jump up from the desk, her knee earning a bruise from it. This is when she finally noticed, other than a light bruise on her shoulder, she wasn't banged up from what happened the night before, and her clothes, just a few patches of dirt on her jeans and on the back corners of her shirt. She remembered that Natsu had his hoodie's sleeves almost ripped to shreds by the bull, if, if he wasn't there, the damage done to her would have been a lot greater than getting slammed into a light pole. She made a mental note to thank him later, even if he laughed at her because of it. She walked over to the door, not expecting the person who was behind it.

"You look lively this morning." Lucy, already feeling better than she should have, felt even better now.

"Erza." There was no doubt that this morning, Erza looked just as beautiful as she always did. Her hair was clipped back into a low ponytail and even though her clothes were standard office lady dress, nothing ever looked standard on her. "Oh, well," Lucy took one more look around the room, as if it would change anything, "both Elfman and Levi aren't here."

Erza looked around, a frustrated look forming on her face, "That so? Those two, I swear." She breathed out and tapped her high heeled foot. She sighed, and put her palm to her forehead, shifting back her bangs in an attempt to calm herself. Lucy, not knowing what was bothering her, couldn't help but feel worried as she eyed the window, wondering what kind of mess would bust through it. The reason? The tension in the air made her become off center. She couldn't help but feel nervous with the ever calm Erza literally doing the same in front of her. Erza, now noticing the look on Lucy's face, stepped farther into the room, now a stern look on her face, "Break will begin in about an hour," Erza snuck a glance at Lucy's desk and spotted her bag, a confident smile appeared on her face, "Don't let men see weakness. It will only make them wish to crush you." Lucy furrowed her eyebrows, trying to process what Erza had just said. Erza chuckled a bit at Lucy and turned, walking down the hall. Her heels clacking onto the tile floor as she did so. Even though Lucy was now even more excited than before, seeing as how she spoke to Erza, but she couldn't get the feeling that Erza didn't stop by just to say hello.

Lucy looked towards her bag at her desk and commenced her blog for the past few days.

However, before she could, she spotted a comment on another one of her blogs. The one she had gotten her first comment on, from that rude Dragoon fellow. She huffed when she remembered; it still made her mad, but for some reason, not as mad as it had just those few days ago. It was weird, but she couldn't help but see where he was coming from. She flinched when she realized what she was thinking. After grinding her fist into her head a few times, the thought left her. She clicked onto the entry, finding that familiar username once more. She had to stop herself from yelling out, "If you don't like it, don't comment!" She clicked her foot on the ground as she read the comment, with each word she mumbled as she read, her foot tapping got less incessant. To the point where it even stopped. She stared at the screen, not sure what to believe. It read,

"Better yet, join me."

Her mind started to interpret it in all kinds of ways. Such as, join what? Who are you? What makes you so great? And,

Will they make me happy?

She gazed at it a bit longer, not sure why it gave her the courage to go to the place of her troubles without being dragged there.

_**Fairy Boulevard**_

_**Sushi Tails**_

_**Afternoon of August 19th**_

She fidgeted at the table, uneasy while she waited. The woman with wavy dark brown hair, Cana, lounged at the bar, taking back shots with the two older men who always seemed to be there when Lucy came. Other people of different shapes and sizes, as usual, were there as well. She looked towards the entryway to the kitchen of the restaurant, hoping that she would see black hair come tumbling from behind it. Better yet, a red sleeved arm. She waited for what seemed like an hour. There was no way she was going to let the first day she became a part of this "guild" thing end with her going home with no real difference in routine. She looked back down towards the table and sighed, letting her hands tangle into her hair with no real resistance. "Good Afternoon." She looked up quickly, too quickly in fact. The gleam of the lights, even though as dim as they were at this time of night, made her eyes squint. When they finally refocused, another beauty of a woman had appeared. The woman's hair was slivery white and ran down her back, her bangs were held up by a hair band and she was well endowed. She stared down at Lucy, her blue eyes glistening in the faint light, "It will be getting dark outside soon. It gets dangerous at night, are you waiting for someone?" Lucy was too dazzled to talk properly and instead just did a slight motion of her head up and down. The woman looked around the restaurant then at the door, all this while balancing two full glasses of some kind of liquid on a tray in one palm, "Better luck next time then." She looked down at Lucy and smiled. It was a kind yet forceful smile, as if it was pleading to her to listen to what it was saying. To go home, now.

The woman patted Lucy on the shoulder and began to walk away. Lucy looked towards the door, waiting for a last minute miracle. Nothing. She turned quickly to the woman who was still within a meter's ear shot, "Natsu." The woman stopped dead in her tracks, she turned to Lucy, her face confused. Lucy cleared her throat, making sure that this time the woman would understand, "I'm waiting for Natsu." It was a bit embarrassing stating this to a total stranger who might have not even known him, but for some reason, Lucy felt like this woman of all people was the one she should be telling this to. It took the woman a moment to come to realize what she had just heard. She turned on her heel and walked back to Lucy's table, setting down the tray of glasses onto the table before wiping her hands upon her signature 'Sushi Tails' blue apron.

She looked at Lucy expectantly, "Well then, do you have a piece of paper and a pen?" The look in her eyes made Lucy take her seriously. She looked to her bag for what she needed, shuffling the contents before she finally found a pen, but no paper. She placed it in front of the woman, who took it up immediately, then took a glance at Lucy's hand, "You don't mind do you?" She pointed to Lucy's palm, to which Lucy gave. She started to scribble something, "I didn't expect you to come here so soon. Lucy right?" She looked up from what she was writing, "It's nice to meet you." Lucy couldn't hold back the urge to smile at the woman, so she didn't. She grinned, completely unaware of the gravity of the situation she was getting herself into. She started to think about how she would explain to Natsu how she knew his name, it still bothered her that she just blurted it out when she was never told it in the first place. The name itself had some weird power over her in this way. Then more thoughts came into her head, like how this woman knew her name. The black haired man and Natsu never knew what her name was. She bit her lip, then remembered when Natsu visited her apartment, he must have seen it somewhere, she decided. The woman lifted the pen from Lucy's palm, capping it while smiling at her work. Lucy picked up her palm to read it.

"The Tower of Heaven?" Lucy looked to the woman, who was smoothing out her apron. The woman pointed to the rest of what was on her palm, an address of some sort.

"Natsu." The woman picked up the tray and once more balanced it onto her palm with ease.

Lucy looked down at the address, "Natsu?"

The woman turned her back and began to walk back towards the bar of the restaurant, her steps light despite her heels. Lucy stared at her palm a bit longer, something about it seemed off. She wondered if she should go only for a moment before deciding she would. She stood from the table, grabbed her pen and her bag, and left the restaurant.

_**The Tower of Heaven**_

_**Evening of August 19th**_

Lucy definitely didn't expect what she saw in front of her now. A man stumbled out of the door in a drunken stupor. He intended to turn left but ended up tripping over the edge of the sign outside the door that read something like "No Fairies and/or Flying Horses allowed." She squatted down in front of it, trying to understand exactly what it meant. She frowned at the inside joke, something she wasn't meant to get. She looked up from her squatting position and took another look at the building. It just looked like any other bar. It had the smell of liquor pouring out of the door every time it opened. She wasn't sure if she should enter for a moment, places like this weren't always so inviting to a woman alone, even if she was Erza, going in would definitely call trouble to herself. She sighed, not expecting the door to open violently. She caught sight of a head of pink hair, one of black hair and a man in a beanie. She locked eyes with the familiar black haired man, who looked at her like he had the day that he had when she was standing across the street that day, just confused and at a loss. The man in the beanie took off down the street, not wasting time to look back. The pink haired man, Natsu most definitely, had bumped into the black haired man who had stopped to stare. He looked up in anger, only to notice Lucy squatting in front of them. She furrowed her eyes in suspicion, "What'd you do now?" Natsu laughed then headed down the side walk at a running pace. The black haired man, who was stunned moments before, took hold of her forearm and dragged her up from her squatting position.

"I'd say you should run with us." A loud series of yells and sounds of breaking glass came from inside the bar. He looked back at the door of the bar, "Looks like they're waking up." Lucy, not being one to stick around when she knew there was trouble, decided she would do as he said, she was looking for them anyways and if she didn't follow them now, she didn't want to imagine how hard it would be to catch them next time. She took off down the street, the black haired man followed behind her. His heavy breathing indicated that he had a brawl just moments before. Her neck tingled from the cold, he was a bit closer then she imagined, either that or he was doing it on purpose. Her heels and skirt she wore today proved to be restricting nuisance. She heard a series of heavy footsteps closing in on them. She felt the urge to just rip her skirt up the thigh side but stopped herself. As Erza's told her before, a woman's got to have at least one piece of formal clothing and besides jeans and miniskirts, this was all she had that looked the least bit 'formal.' She endured the skirt and only told her legs to move faster. She turned to look behind herself, finding the black haired man doing the same. He stopped dead in his tracks and pivoted on his heel, turning to their pursuers, which were around ten or so various men and women. She didn't bother to really see what they looked like, she just knew they weren't all the same looking because if they were, she would have passed out from fear right there.

She stopped as soon as he did. It was abrupt and made her previously up done hair come flipping forward. "What are you doing?" He lifted both of his hands, making his fist touch his other hand's palm.

"Ice make," she couldn't hear much after that, but she did see what happened. The ground in front of him, around fifteen feet of it, turned into a sheet of ice. He turned back around and broke out again into a run. Lucy, who was now in the process of watching the pursuers slip back and forth across the sidewalk, literally falling on top of each other, stood and watched. He grabbed her shoulder and forcefully turned her forward again. When he noticed she was still not moving, he grunted in frustration and grabbed ahold of her wrist, pulling her to move. It was only a momentary daze though because due to his icy touch, she had snapped out of it quickly. She tugged at her arm as the continued to run, trying to free it from his grasp. She wasn't really embarrassed, though it was a little embarrassing, it's just that her body's reaction to such a touch made her instinctively try to get away, that's all. She felt a bit bad when she realized what she was doing.

"Hey, what's with everybody chasing you and Natsu?" She managed to say between breathes. She heard him gasp for breath as he continued to drag her.

"Fairy Tail, our guild, has been making a mess of them lately. They have some kind of problem with us so they send their bull friends and shadow guys after us. That's why they attacked you." He wasn't as fast as Natsu, but she could still feel her legs strain to keep up.

She almost tripped, making him turn to her with a worried look. "Because."

"Because they thought you were already a part of Fairy Tail, well then again, from what I've heard, you already are. Not sure what kind of wizard you are though." He stopped abruptly again and turned to his left, looking down into the subway station. "We went to the bar to do reconnaissance but before we could get information, Natsu had to go and blow it." His eyes searched the area then they paused and he grinned; something Lucy wasn't sure to take as good or bad. "Nice of you to join us though." He laughed and pulled her as he ran down the steps of the station.

"Took you long enough." Lucy looked up from her feet on the stairs and spotted him and his pink hair. He grinned as he looked up at both her and the black haired man on the stairs. Her hair fumbled in front of her face and settled there. She finally got out of the man's grip. His grin was contagious and her mouth naturally formed a smile back at him, despite him having just insulted her. Her face faltered after she realized what she was doing. She blew air up at her bangs. She couldn't help but be dragged around by his pace.

"Gray, Natsu, the train leaves in," the voice coming from behind Natsu stopped for a moment, then continued, "Who is this?" The voice belonged to a man in a beanie who wore a pair of glasses. Lucy wasn't sure if they were just for decoration or not. Natsu and the black haired man, who Lucy assumed was named Gray, turned to her, as if they were asking themselves the same question. She stuttered before answering.

"I'm Lucy. Lucy Heartphilia." She smoothed her hair out of her face and tried to put forward her best business smile, which most likely wasn't that convincing given her current appearance.

Natsu pondered about the name before repeating it out loud, "Lucy." He nodded his head in approval, as if it was needed. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed now, more so then when Gray refuse to let her go even though she could run perfectly fine on her own, another thing about him that urked her besides the water thing, and for some reason, Natsu saying her name sent her into a bit of a loop. The man in the beanie stepped forward and smirked, holding out his hand to Lucy, breaking her out of it.

"I am Loke, my lovely Lucy." He put a hand to his head and pulled off his beanie, revealing a head of orange spiky hair. Lucy wasn't sure how to take his playboy demeanor, so she simply nodded at him. He retracted his hand, dejected, and put on his beanie once more. He raised three tickets into the air, "So I have bought our tickets," he eyed Lucy up and down, "All of us would mean four. Should I get another or are you not joining us Miss Lucy?" Lucy shook her head no and opened her bag, fumbling for her wallet. She was having a bit of trouble finding it, so she took her keys out of the way to find it. When she did, she felt as if she was being stared at intently. When she looked up, she found the man in the beanie, Loke as he said, gaping at her right hand. She looked to her hand which held her keys. To her apartment, her desk drawer and a few more that she had been collecting since she came to the city. She cringed at the way her key ring looked like it belonged to a janitor. She turned back to Loke, who was mumbling something. "C…Celestial. You're a Celestial…" Lucy titled her head in confusion, continuing to fish her bag for her wallet. She smiled when she found it. "Celestial Wizard." She flinched at how those words seemed to be directed at her. She looked up again, not quite getting it.

"The Train is departing, all passengers, the train is departing. Last call." Lucy turned to the train that was past the ticket checkpoint.

"Dammit, The train!" Gray grabbed a ticket from Loke and sprinted for the train. Loke ran off behind him, even quicker than him, as if he was running from something. Natsu stood in place and watched.

"The doors are closing."

Lucy was still, still trying to understand what Loke meant. Celestial wizard was what he called her right? At this moment she had no idea what that meant. The train doors closed, and Gray inside, looked out the door window, not realizing what he had just done until that very moment. The subway train took off down the tracks, leaving both Lucy and Natsu there. Lucy looked to Natsu, who seemed to have no problem with the reality of the situation. It was late, and that, that was the last train. Lucy placed her keys and wallet back into her bag then pointed at the empty train tracks, "Weren't you?"

Natsu crossed her arms and huffed air out of his nose, which from him meant little steam puffs from his inner heat coming out instead, "Like I'd ride one of those things."

Lucy frowned and looked back up the stairs leading down into the subway. "Of course you aren't." She took off her heels and placed them into her bag because with luck, the people from before were on their way. She turned to Natsu, who was as calm as can be, then started to jog up the stairs. Natsu yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

She turned back to him, and frowned, "Home." She turned back around and started to jog again. She heard a series of steps behind her and she turned around once more. "Where are you going?"

He grinned at her, "With you."

She sighed, "Of course you are." She ran up the last few stairs, finding him next to her within a matter of seconds. A loud number of yells came from behind them. Natsu sped off down the street full speed. She took off behind him, all the while not being able to control the smile the crept onto her face.

_Better yet, join me._

* * *

**Slightly disappointed that there was no battle scene. Sulk Sulk. There will be one in the next one though, I assure you. This chapter was shorter than most and although Lucy finally joined Fairy Tail, you can tell she has no idea what she's getting herself into. She just joined on an impulse and I plan on making it hard for her from now on. Thanks for reading and reviewing! You guys are what get me through this story without dying from inspiration deficiency. **

**Review and tell me what you think!**


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